


Head Over Heels

by LittleRose13



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cheerleader!Scorpius, Fluff, Gymnastics, M/M, Mentions of Cancer, Muggle AU, Not Cursed Child Compliant, also the Malfoy family feels crept up on me, cheerleading, freerunning, i researched one (1) freerunning move for this fic, scorbus fest, soft, technically this contains a spoiler for My Neighbour Totoro, the most ridiculous au to ever exist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 22:43:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20460716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRose13/pseuds/LittleRose13
Summary: James was going to the Olympics, Lily was going to Worlds and Albus was… going back to the changing room.Albus has been dealt the unlucky hand, his dreams of attending the Olympics with his brother crushed long ago. But he’s learned to live with it, working as hard as he can, even if he is a little disillusioned these days.That’s set to change when the arrival of a handsome, blond cheerleader gives Albus something to care about again.





	Head Over Heels

“I’ve been offered a place on the team, for 2028. I just wanted you to hear it from me first.”

A pause, Albus blinked at his best friend and said nothing. 

Cole didn’t break his gaze. “I know you’re still pretty gutted about… well, I just don’t want this to come betwe-”

“Mate, that’s brilliant!” Albus pulled himself together, physically shaking himself into action and clapping Cole on the shoulder. “Proud of you, really, I am.” 

“It’s only the preliminary team, might not ever make it to the games, but… yeah.” Cole sat on the bench in the changing room, reaching to unlace his trainers but never actually making it. 

Albus sat down beside him, his water bottle clutched between both hands and swinging between his knees. “I’m honestly so happy for you, and, well, I appreciate you telling me first.”

Cole patted his knee lightly. “I honestly didn’t think I’d get on. I was up against kids who’ve been diving for way longer than me.”

“They weren’t coached by the Jordans though, were they.” Albus laughed lightly, standing up and fiddling with the zip on his hoodie. “You’ve worked hard for this, you deserve it.”

He’d expected Cole to be following him into the gym but he remained seated on the bench.

“It isn’t fair, Al. You’re supposed to be on Team GB with me. You deserve it too.” 

Albus shrugged, ignoring the dull ache in his chest which refused to leave whenever this was mentioned. “Well, I’m not. My hamstring saw to that.” He sighed sharply. “Anyway, I wouldn’t be on the team with you anyway.” 

“That’s true, I never would have made it on for gym.” Cole grinned.

Albus scoffed. “I meant different years. It’s great that you got into diving, but you were a bloody good gymnast too.” 

Cole looked around the changing room, the same one they’d first met in when they were both little boys, here at the same gym they’d been coming to for over a decade. “I like it here, I think I like it more now I come on my own terms.”

He ruffled Albus’ hair and slipped past him out of the changing room.

“Me too,” Albus whispered after him. 

It was Sunday night Open Gym, something Albus came to nearly every week as a welcome break from the ever-increasing amount of work his A Levels were turning out to be. His parents knew better than to suggest he take a break for his last year of school, especially when both his siblings were here at the gym just as much as he was. 

The session was fairly busy that week. Albus’ sister, Lily, and a whole group of her cheer friends were there, alongside the other regulars like Albus who came to Open Gym every week. He wasn’t really too concerned with who else was there; Albus came to work hard and get on with it by himself, occasionally working with some of the others who were into freerunning, but that mainly consisted of filming each other so they could focus on technique.

He’d been working by himself for most of the session when some random girl came and interrupted him whilst he was taking a water break. 

“Can you spot me for my back handspring?” she said, batting her eyelashes. 

“Er, I’m not really a very good spot, you’d be better off asking…” He gazed around, looking for someone nearby. 

“Okay, I’ll go and do that.” He hadn’t even given a suggestion of who to ask but the girl eyed him like he’d done something wrong and turned away with a swing of her ponytail.

“She was trying to flirt with you, you big dummy.” Lily said from where she was literally upside down in a handstand. 

“What?” Albus stared at his little sister like she was mad. 

Lily snapped out of her handstand and skipped over to him. “That girl, asking you to spot her. She was trying to flirt with you.” 

Albus looked bewilderedly between his sister and where the girl had just been. “How do you know?”

“Duh, it’s obvious. I saw her watching you practise your standing fulls.” Lily grinned slyly. “Which, by the way, have gotten so good they could get you a spot on our Worlds team.” 

Albus laughed. “For the last time, I’m not interested in cheerleading.” 

Lily shrugged, preparing for another handstand. “Just don’t let Coach Astoria see you then.” 

“Oh yes, I’ll be sure not to accidentally whip out any tumbling next time I pick you up from training.” 

Lily gave him a judgemental look from her handstand. “You never pick me up from training.” 

“Precisely, so how would she ever see me?” 

She elegantly allowed her handstand to fall into a forward roll and stood back up. “We have a practice tonight, she’s here.”

Albus groaned. “But Dad’s got my car, Mum said she’d pick me up with you. How long’s your practice going on for?”

Lily thought for a second. “Only an hour and a half.”

_ “Only,” _ Albus grumbled to himself. 

“You can always join in,” Lily sang, ruffling his hair and skipping over to where some of her teammates had just arrived. 

Albus swore under his breath. He really wasn’t in the mood to sit around waiting for Lily to finish cheer tonight, but he couldn’t drive himself because his dad had borrowed his car to take James to his Team GB training all the way in London. That was how the priorities worked. 

James, his older brother, was more or less dedicating his life to gymnastics after he was successfully given a place to train with Team GB for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Of course Albus was happy for his brother but it stung just a bit every time he thought about how close he’d come to being there with him only to have the dream shattered when he’d torn his hamstring and been forced to retire from traditional gymnastics. 

Lily had made waves herself in the rhythmic gymnastics scene but she’d never quite had the patience for it. Then she discovered cheerleading and hadn’t looked back, working her way up to a level five team working on getting a bid to the Cheerleading World Championships.

James was going to the Olympics, Lily was going to Worlds and Albus was… going back to the changing room. 

It was empty, the other boys who’d been at Open Gym having already left, and Albus sighed to himself, grumbling under his breath at how unfair it all was. He stripped his sweaty t-shirt off and began rooting around in his bag for a clean one. He knew there was one in there but it refused to make itself accessible, forcing Albus to pull the heavy sports bag down to the floor so he could properly search. 

_ Well _ , he thought to himself moodily, _ it’s not like I have anything to rush out for. _

With that, the door swung open and Albus snapped up in surprise; he’d thought he was the last boy here.

“Oh! Sorry, did I surprise you?”

Albus felt his eyebrows shoot upwards and he suddenly became very aware that he was stood there shirtless. It was a boy, someone Albus had never seen at the gym before, with white blond hair that he’d probably paid some fancy hairdresser a lot of money for, and a kit bag of his own over one shoulder. 

“You’re good, it’s good,” Albus muttered randomly. In his hurried, flustered desire to be clothed again, he threw his sweaty t-shirt back on. 

The boy hung his bag up and unzipped the hoodie he was wearing, clearly looking like he was about to go and train. Albus sort of hated himself for noticing that this boy was actually quite fit. 

“Er, Open Gym’s actually finished,” Albus said, swinging his bag over his shoulder.

“I’m not here for Open Gym.” The boy sat on the bench and neatly crossed his legs, slipping his foot into a shoe that Albus recognised.

“Oh. You’re a cheerleader?” 

He hadn’t meant them to, but his words had come out sounding condescending and judgemental. 

An expression of annoyance crossed the boy’s face and he opened his mouth to reply.

“No! I didn’t mean it like that, I know cheer’s hard as fuck. I was just surprised that you... “ Albus stopped because the boy was just watching him with interest. “I’ve never seen you training your tumbles here before.” He privately thought to himself that maybe the boy didn’t have any experience tumbling and that was why he’d never seen him there before. 

“I could say the same about you,” the boy replied coolly.

Albus blinked. “Touché.”

“Are you a gymnast then?”

“Used to be, now I do freerunning, spend far too much time here.” Albus laughed. “My sister’s on your team, Lily.” 

The boy smiled widely. “Lily’s my flyer. So you must be Albus?” 

Albus made a mental note to berate his sister for not mentioning this mysterious, blond addition to her stunt group sooner. 

“Albus, yeah, Al’s fine.” He rubbed at the back of his neck and flicked his hair from his eyes, aware he probably looked like shit after training so hard. 

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Albus.” The boy finished lacing his shoe with a flourish. “I’m Scorpius Malfoy. Scor’s fine.” 

“Malfoy? As in-”

“My mum’s Coach Astoria, yes.” 

“Your mum coaches you, what’s that like?” He took a sip from his water bottle to keep his hands busy. 

Scorpius’ eyes flickered over to the door. “Er, it’s fine-”

He fiddled with the lid to the bottle, feeling progressively more awkward. “Sorry, you need to go, don’t you.”

Scorpius grinned apologetically. “Well, yes, sort of. Are you coming to watch our full out?”

“Oh, no, I’m just…” Albus gestured vaguely to the door too, realising he couldn’t even say he was going to leave. 

“Didn’t think you were sticking around.” Scorpius straightened up and clicked his neck over to one side. “It was very nice to meet you, Albus.” 

“Yeah, you too, have a good, um, time.” He felt his face heat up at the words as soon as they left his mouth.

Scorpius looked a bit bemused but smiled all the same. “Thank you.”

He left the changing room in a sweep of blond hair and Albus stared at the spot he’d just been in, feeling slightly punch drunk and suddenly like he was unable to just walk out of the changing room too. Both hands gripped in his hair, Albus sighed deeply, wondering why he felt so flustered. Scorpius was a total stranger, they’d simply introduced themselves, why did he feel like this?

He supposed he knew why. Scorpius was pretty and Albus had known he liked boys for three years now and there was something about Scorpius being a mysterious stranger who was suddenly just _ there _ in his space being all blond and putting on his cheer shoes and smiling and Albus had not seen this coming. 

Shaking his head as if to rid himself of all these thoughts, Albus swung his kit bag over his shoulder and picked up his water bottle. As he left the changing room, he caught a glimpse of himself in the full length mirror. For a second, Albus thought maybe he looked quite cool. Then he decided that made him a prat and he quickly slammed the door open to leave. 

The clock over the reception desk told Albus he had over an hour to wait until he could go home and he sighed miserably. 

“Don’t forget to sign out,” Thea, the girl sitting behind the reception desk, reminded him.

“I’m not leaving yet, got to wait for Lil,” Albus explained. 

“Oh.” Thea pulled a face then reached for something under the desk. “Want to split these with me? Don’t tell my dad, I’m not supposed to eat at the desk.” 

It was a pack of Oreo biscuits and Albus grinned and nodded at Thea’s wicked smile. She proffered the packet towards him, sliding a biscuit out so he could take hold of it.

“Thanks.” 

Thea held up her own biscuit like she was about to make a toast. “To us poor normals who aren’t going to Paris.”

Albus rolled his eyes but tapped his biscuit against hers anyway. It was only because Thea had known him since he was little that she could get away with saying something like that. 

“Are you here all night?” Albus asked, leaning against the counter. “Until the cheer lot clear out?”

Thea shook her head and glanced at the time on the computer in front of her. “Nah, only here until eight then Dad’ll take over. You know how he likes to be the last one in the gym.”

“It is his gym,” Albus commented, swallowing a mouthful of biscuit, when he noticed Thea looking past him, a frown on her face. 

Albus turned around to see what she was looking at: somebody’s mum was peering up against a tiny crack in the door, her entire torso pressed up against it. As he watched, she turned back and shook her head disappointedly at another mother. 

“What is she doing?” Albus whispered to Thea, who handed him another biscuit. 

Thea shrugged and waved her own biscuit about casually. “Not a clue, these cheer mums are weird.” She froze suddenly and glanced over urgently, her expression then relaxing. “Just making sure your mum isn’t there too.”

Albus chuckled. “No, not today.” He looked over his shoulder at where the same mother was pressed up against the door again. “Why doesn’t she just go in?”

“I don’t think they’re allowed, that coach is a bit strict. What’s her name? Astrid?”

“Astoria,” Albus supplied. “Lily basically lives to please her.” He paused, swallowed hard, and went for it. “I didn’t realise her son was on the team?” 

“Is he?” Thea thought for a second, chewing on her biscuit. “I only saw two boys. Has he got dark hair?” 

“Nah, blond. Really blond.” 

Thea’s eyes widened. “That’s her son? She doesn’t look old enough to have a son our age. He is our age, isn’t he? He looks it.”

Albus focused a disproportionate amount of attention on the biscuit packet to busy himself from making any kind of comment about what Scorpius looked like. 

“Er, yeah, I think so.”

“You know, Albus, I think you’d make a good cheerleader.” 

Albus fixed her with a hard stare. “Are you joking?” 

Thea tried to keep a straight face. “No, no, dead serious.” 

“Wouldn’t I need to be a bit more… cheerful?” 

“I don’t know, break in and watch.” Thea screwed up the empty biscuit packet and checked her watch. “Right, I’m going to Rose’s. Have fun hanging around here.” 

“Yeah, can’t wait.” Albus sighed, still leaning against the reception desk. 

Thea wiggled her fingers at him in a wave and blew a kiss, disappearing into the office behind the reception desk. Albus trudged over to the very corner of the waiting area, as far away from any of the cheer mums as he could, and swung his kit bag onto the floor, falling into a seat and sighing heavily. He let out a sharp breath, watching his fringe flutter up and back down into place then tapped his fingers against the side of the chair, already bored. 

He would’ve brought homework or a book or something with him if he’d known he’d be waiting around for so long. As it was, he had only his phone which was on its last bit of battery and whatever else might be in the bottom of his kit bag. There was a sad selection of magazines on the coffee table between the seats and, for lack of anything better to do, Albus picked up a copy of _ Men’s Health _ and started flicking through it. 

It was a highly uninspiring magazine, he thought to himself as he skimmed over an article about _ Why Men Should Embrace the Sheer Shirt Look _amongst other content he didn’t have much interest in. But it passed the time fairly reasonably and before Albus knew it, he’d been sat there for half an hour already, only looking up when there was a commotion at the door.

It opened for a second and one of the cheerleaders came dashing out, crossing straight over to her mum with a distraught expression, promptly bursting into dramatic, noisy tears. Albus eyed the scene warily, trying to blend in with the wall behind him as best he could. 

“I ca- ca- can’t hit it, Mum. I’m ru-ru-rubbish.” 

Albus listened as the girl’s mum assured her she wasn’t rubbish and the girl insisted it was all her fault. Nobody in the waiting area seemed to have noticed that, in the open doorway to the gym, Astoria was also surveying the scene, her expression unreadable. If Albus didn’t already want to melt into a puddle on the floor and slip away, he certainly did a second later when someone appeared, hovering over Astoria’s shoulder; Scorpius. He was taller than his mum and looked equally concerned. 

He whispered something to Astoria and she waved a hand in what looked like a _ go ahead _motion. Without warning, Scorpius came striding into the waiting area towards where Albus was sitting. 

Albus felt his heart rate increase and his cheeks flush a bit and he tried desperately to act as if he didn’t feel like a complete idiot in that moment, staring at the page of the magazine in front of him. But as hard as he tried, he couldn’t block out the drama that was unfolding in front of him. 

“It’s okay, Mimi. It doesn’t matter.”

Chancing the tiniest glance up, Albus saw Scorpius knelt in front of the younger girl with his hand on her shoulder and a sympathetic expression on his face. 

“The stunt is still new, we’ll get it, we just need some more practice. I need to work on my grips some more, I think that’s why it dropped that last time.” 

“Everyone else has it by now, it’s just me who keeps falling,” the girl, Mimi, complained through tears. 

Scorpius turned back to his mum with a bit of a helpless expression and she sighed, coming over to join him.

“Come on,” she said, putting her arm around Mimi’s shoulders. “Let’s give it a break for a bit, work on the timing for pyramid. We’ll come back to it later.” She nodded to the mums who were all watching with interest and began to lead Mimi back into the gym. “Not long, ladies.”

Scorpius straightened up, watching them both walk away, but then he unexpectedly turned around to look right at Albus. “You’re still here?” he asked, his tone one of polite interest.

“Waiting for a lift home,” Albus shrugged, trying to appear casual. 

“Come in and watch.” Scorpius beckoned with his shoulder. 

Albus blushed. “I don’t think I’m allowed.” 

Scorpius had the tiniest smirk on his face and he opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a shout from the doorway. 

“Scorpius! Come on, we can’t start pyramid without you.” 

The smirk became a sheepish grin and Scorpius hurried away, leaving Albus feeling dazed and confused. He hid behind the magazine again to hide any and all feelings he was having.

Only a short while later, the door opened once more and Albus vaguely glanced up to Astoria stood in the doorway, addressing everyone in the waiting room. It was then Albus realised he was the only person who wasn’t sat there expectantly waiting for her to speak. 

“We’re ready for our audience,” she said, and all at once, the mums got up and rushed forward into the gym. 

Albus sat back in his chair, letting out a small sigh of relief that it was almost over, as all the parents around him cleared out of the waiting area. He thought he was finally alone when he heard someone clear their throat.

“Are you coming?” 

Albus looked up, surprised to find Astoria was addressing him expectantly_ . _

“Er, should I be?” He had assumed he wasn’t needed nor wanted inside the gym for any reason. 

“You’re here for Lily, aren’t you?” She frowned slightly. 

Immediately, Albus felt like he was being rude for not going in to watch. She must think he was a terrible, heartless brother. “Oh, well, if you don’t mind,” he said, trying to convey that he hadn’t thought he was supposed to go in before. 

“Not at all, she’ll be thrilled!” Astoria nodded her head in the direction of the gym and Albus shuffled in obediently. 

Inside, the cheerleaders were milling around on the floor and the parents from the waiting room were sat on benches facing them. Albus tried not to but he instantly spotted Scorpius amongst the team, bouncing up and down on the spot and testing the floor out, laughing at something the person beside him had said. 

“Sit wherever you like.” Astoria pointed to one of the benches which had some space left and Albus hastily sat down, nodding a bit awkwardly at the mum beside him. 

“Hello, dear.” she said kindly. “Are you in this team?”

“No, my sister,” Albus said, vaguely pointing to where Lily was.

“My Molly-May’s over there,” the mum said proudly. “It’s her first season at level five.”

Albus wasn’t sure what that meant exactly but it sounded like a good thing so he tried to look impressed. 

“It’s so exciting for them to have Astoria here, she’s really unlocked a lot of potential in our girls. And boys, I suppose. Even if we only have three at the moment. And one of them is hers anyway.” The mum laughed. “I’m so pleased they could move on from level four.”

“Thanks, all, for being here today! This is our first time running a full-out with an audience and a lot of our athletes’ first time performing at level five ahead of next week’s comp.” She knelt down at the front of the mat and gave the team (who were accumulated at the back of the mat) a thumbs up. “Introducing, in the small, level five, co-ed division, Phoenix Allstars Black!” 

Albus looked around bewildered when there was suddenly an uproar of cheering and shouting; he’d forgotten how _ loud _ cheerleading got. The athletes made some kind of grand entrance and stood in what looked like starting positions. Lily spotted Albus and waved at him before getting into her start position. He hesitantly waved back and tried to ignore Scorpius, who was right in the middle. 

“Phoenix!” some random person shouted and Albus nearly jumped when everyone on the team replied with “black is back!” for some unknown reason. 

Loud and frankly obnoxious music stating that nobody was _ ready for this _ started playing from a speaker in the corner and the athletes started performing. Albus didn’t really know where to look, there was so much going on, so he just watched Lily. She threw a standing tuck and within seconds was loading into a stunt and way up high on top of somebody’s hands. His eyes widened a bit; he knew Lily had levelled up to a harder team this year but he hadn’t ever seen just how impressive some of the stuff she was doing now was.

As the routine progressed, Albus arranged his face into a suitably impressed yet casual expression (or so he hoped) and tried not to watch any one person specifically. However, this plan became difficult when all the different athletes criss crossing across the mat cleared away and Scorpius was in the corner, clearly gearing up for a tumble pass. And there wasn’t anything else to watch, he was clearly the feature of that moment, it was okay, expected, to watch him do this. 

Straight away, he threw himself forwards into a front somersault of an impressive height, landing and going straight into a roundoff, a series of flicks and ending on a double full, twisting layout. It was executed effortlessly. 

Albus wasn’t quite sure how to react when, before he knew it, Scorpius was looking right at him as he finished his pass. He had the audacity to _ wink _ of all things before moving to some other part of the routine with a stupid smirk on his face. 

When the routine ended, everyone clapped and Albus did too. Several of the mums were loudly whooping which Albus did not do too. 

The performance seemed to signal the end of the session because everyone started to scatter, collecting bags and water bottles. Albus wondered if he could slip away unnoticed but Scorpius was already bounding over. 

“What did you think?” Scorpius bounced about as he spoke, seemingly full of energy.

“Very good. Your double is… wow, you’re great.” 

“Oh, I didn’t mean me, I meant the team in gener-”

“Since when do you two know each other?” Lily came sidling over with her backpack on, frowning in confusion. 

“We don’t know each other,” Albus said far too quickly at the same time as Scorpius spoke.

“Just met today,” he said happily, smiling angelically in Albus’ direction. 

“Oh.” Lily seemed disinterested. “Mum’s here, Al.” She skipped off, her red ponytail swinging behind her.

“Well, it was nice to meet you. Good luck with the season and everything.” Albus shuffled from foot to foot, wondering why he couldn’t just say bye and leave.

Scorpius smiled shyly. “Do you come to any of Lily’s comps?” 

“Er, yeah, that big one at the end of the year in Bournemouth.” Albus hesitated. “See you there, I suppose.”

“Or sooner,” Scorpius said conversationally, “maybe, you know, around this place.”

“Yeah, maybe. Well, bye, then.” He turned and left, his face burning and adrenaline pulsing through his body. He’d never been more conscious of his arms while walking; they seemed to flop uselessly at his sides. 

“Bye, Al!” a cheery voice called after him, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to turn around and look at Scorpius again. 

In the back of the car, Lily narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you being weird?” she hissed. 

“I’m not,” Albus mumbled, aware he was indeed being weird. 

“Yes you are. And I know why.” Lily had a wicked smirk spreading across her face.

“Can you just not be the very most for five minutes?” Albus said in exasperation. 

“Scorpius,” she said slyly, staring him down. “He’s got you all flustered, hasn’t he.”

“_No_,” Albus insisted. “I just-”

“Fancy him,” Lily said casually.

“What the fuck, Lil?” 

“Mum, Albus swore at me!” Lily picked her voice up immediately. 

“Probably because you’re teasing him about fancying Scorpius,” their mum replied, matching Lily’s inflection, not missing a beat. 

“What the _ fuck _, Mum?” 

Their mum mimed zipping her lips to show she wasn’t going to get any more involved than that. 

“I’m right,” Lily said smugly.

Albus turned on her in frustration. “You know, Lil, just because I’ve come out now doesn’t mean I have to _ automatically-” _

“I know, I know,” Lily said with a sigh. “You being gay doesn’t mean you fancy every boy, I _ know _.” She paused and grinned. “But Scorpius though. Promise I won’t tease you.”

Albus looked straight ahead, staring at a point on the back of the seat in front. “Little bit, yeah.” 

* * *

True to her word, Lily didn’t tease Albus once about Scorpius all week, nor did she mention anything to do with him until the following Sunday, an hour before Albus was due to leave for Open Gym. She knocked at his bedroom door and came skipping in, dressed in her training stuff with a bow in her hair. 

“I’m coming to Open with you tonight,” she said, by way of explanation. “Comp’s only a week out now. Can you drive me?” 

Albus looked up from the homework he was attempting to finish. “Alright, are you working your tumble?” 

Lily examined the shelf where Albus still had some of his gym trophies displayed, running her finger over the engraved name plaque on one of them. “No, mainly my partner stunt,” she said casually before fixing Albus with a pointed stare.

He sighed and closed his A Level Chemistry textbook. “Why are you telling me this?”

“You know why.” Lily sat on his bed and crossed her legs beneath her. “So you won’t get all flustered when you see him again. I’m pre-warning you.” 

Albus started to protest. “Lily-”

“I’m not trying to tease you, just letting you know.” She smiled innocently. “And for the record, Scorpius is one of the most genuinely nice people I’ve ever met.” 

Albus fidgeted on his desk chair and rubbed at the back of his neck in discomfort. “You don’t happen to know if he, er, likes boys, do you?” 

Lily shook her head. “He’s never mentioned anything either way. So, I suppose, maybe? I can ask him if you want?”

“No! No, it’s okay, it doesn’t matter anyway,” Albus said quickly, standing up and forgetting he had a copy of the periodic table on his lap which floated to the floor. 

“I’d be ever so subtle, he wouldn’t know I was asking because of you,” she continued, practically singing the words.

Albus was bent under the desk, retrieving the periodic table, and he snapped his head up at that. “No! Please don’t, Lil,” he said forcefully. Lily’s idea of _ subtle _ wasn’t even in the same realm as his. 

There was a long and silent pause in which Albus placed the periodic table inside his chemistry textbook and didn’t make eye contact with Lily. 

“You’re welcome for the warning,” she said after a minute. 

“Thanks,” Albus said, pretending to be fully focused on pulling open a drawer and picking out a T-shirt. 

“Choosing your favourite top there, are we? Oh yes, that one will really make your biceps stand out.” Lily smirked proudly. 

“Shut up,” he retorted, trying to conceal a smile and hating that she was right. 

Lily clambered up onto her knees and violently ruffled his hair. “Are you gonna brush your hair for him too?” 

“Oh my god, get out,” he laughed, lightly shoving her away. 

“I am Lily Potter, ultimate wingman and matchmaker extraordinaire!” she cried triumphantly, standing proudly with her hands on her hips before running from the room like a superhero, one first extended before her. 

Albus rolled his eyes before sighing and reaching for his hairbrush. 

* * *

He knew Scorpius was already there when he arrived because he’d checked for his name on the sign in sheet so it wasn’t much of a surprise that he was inside the boys’ changing room, talking to Cole of all people. Albus walked in on them laughing together as if they were old friends, sat beside each other on the bench in the middle of the room with their kit bags dangling above them. Cole was enthusiastically demonstrating something with both hands and Scorpius was watching in awed delight. 

“Alright,” Albus said as the door swung shut behind him, because neither of them had looked up. 

“Al!” Cole greeted enthusiastically. “Do you know Scorpius? He does cheer and-”

“We’ve met,” Albus said in amusement, hanging up his kit bag.

“Hi, again, Al.” Scorpius gave him a little wave which should have made him look stupid but was somehow cute. “You look nice, your hair looks different? I like it.”

Albus’ brain short circuited at the words _ you look nice _ to the point where he could do nothing more than mumble a vague noise of confusion and self-consciously push his hair back from his face with one hand. 

“He’s just brushed it for a change,” Cole swooped in and saved the moment. “So you have a competition next week?” 

Scorpius enthusiastically launched into an explanation of the upcoming competition and Cole flickered his gaze over to Albus for just a second, raising his eyebrows a fraction. Albus frowned and pointedly focused on unzipping his hoodie and hanging it up, perhaps a bit more fiercely than he needed to. 

“So this is the first competition we’re performing the full routine with upgrades, hoping it gets us a bid for Worlds next year.” Scorpius shrugged, continuing to chat away, oblivious. “Lily’s here, isn’t she?” He turned to Albus. 

“Er, yeah she’s here,” he said quickly, caught off guard. 

“Great, we desperately need to practise our partner stunt.” 

“Don’t know what that is, but good luck, mate.” Cole grinned and gestured to the door. “Shall we?” 

“Still have to put my shoes on,” Scorpius smiled, holding up a white cheer trainer in one hand. “See you both in there.” 

Cole grabbed Albus by the elbow and pulled him from the changing room, turning the slyest, most ridiculous smirk ever on him the second the door closed. “_You look nice.” _

“Don’t,” Albus warned. 

“I’m just commenting,” Cole replied innocently. “You did brush your hair, though.” 

“Not talking to you,” Albus called over his shoulder, picking up his pace so he was walking ahead of Cole. 

In the gym, he concentrated furiously on warming up only and not on any people who may have been walking into the gym at any point. He especially didn’t notice when one person in particular arrived with Lily and a whole gaggle of cheer girls following him, copying his warm up and looking to him to tell them what to do. He didn’t notice because he was far too busy working on his corkscrew. 

He was preoccupied enough that he didn’t watch out of the corner of his eye while Lily practised her partner stunt with that person, nor when she toppled out of it and was caught expertly and effectively by him. He absolutely didn’t notice at all when he made sure to check his little sister was alright and feeling comfortable enough to do it again before they did. Albus noticed none of these things; he noticed only his corkscrew. 

After some intense focus on only his corkscrew, Albus was at the water fountain, waiting impatiently for the pathetic stream of water to fill his bottle up to a level he could actually drink from. He felt movement behind him and he turned to see who it was.

“Hi.” Scorpius bobbed about; he seemed to be incapable of standing still. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” Albus said, concentrating on his water bottle. “You? Getting lots done?” 

“Oh yes!” Scorpius said brightly. “I really think we’ve cracked the stunt.” He rubbed vaguely at his chest in discomfort.

“Er, are you alright?” Albus took his full water bottle from the fountain and started screwing the top back on. 

“Lily sort of stepped on me, but it’s fine, it happens.”

“Man, cheer is _ brutal _ by the sounds of it,” Albus said with what he hoped was a casual laugh, despite the fact that he’d never started a sentence with _ man _ in his life.

“Cheerleading accounts for more injuries every year than American football,” Scorpius said, going to fill his own water bottle. “It’s considered one of the most dangerous sports there is.” 

“How did you end up in cheer anyway?” Albus said without really thinking about it. “Not that you shouldn’t be in cheer, it’s great that you are, I just… wondered.” He pulled a face at his own stupidity. 

“My mum,” Scorpius said with a smile. “She helped found a team when she was at uni and then ended up on one of the first allstar teams in the country, which she ended up coaching. I used to be on that team, before we moved here and Mum started Phoenix.”

“When did you move here?” Albus was aware he no longer had any reason to still be stood there other than talking to Scorpius. 

“Two years ago, just after I’d finished my GCSEs.” He smiled and took a sip of water. 

“Oh, we’re the same age, then.” Albus shrugged. “Are you doing A-Levels now?”

“Yep,” Scorpius said. “Which college do you go to?”

“Sixth Form at Bradbury’s,” Albus explained in a bored voice. “It’s alright. Where do you go?”

“I’m homeschooled actually.” He took a sip of water. “Mainly with my dad, I do A-Level courses through this online thing. I’m an only child so it’s undivided attention in my house.” Scorpius laughed. 

“What’s that like?” Albus chuckled. “How long have you done cheer?” 

“Since I was six, I used to be a flyer and everything.” 

“Cute,” Albus said automatically.

Scorpius went a bit pink. “What’s your story?” 

Albus cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Well, I started gym when I was four,” he replied. “You know Lee who runs this place? He coached us right from the start, me and Cole and my brother, his daughter, Thea, there was a little group of us.” 

“Oh, I’ve met Thea before,” Scorpius said excitedly, a bit of a dreamy look in his eye. “She’s quite something.”

“Don’t get any ideas, she’s dating my cousin,” he said, probably a bit more forcefully than was necessary. 

“Oh… no, I wasn’t - I didn’t mean…” Scorpius blushed further still. “I’m not…” 

“It’s okay,” Albus smiled reassuringly. “Sorry.” 

“I didn’t know you and Lily had another brother?” he said, in a wildly transparent subject change. 

“Yeah, James, he’s never here though.” Albus shrugged. “He’s training for the Olympics with Team GB, he’s in London half the week.” 

Scorpius’ expression cleared. “Oh! Now you mention it, I did know that. How silly of me. That’s so incredibly cool! He must be very good.” 

“He is,” Albus said. “His speciality is beam, look him up on youtube if you want.” He chuckled.

Scorpius was standing with his weight on one hip, looking completely relaxed to be stood there talking to Albus. “And what’s your speciality?” 

Albus rubbed the back of his neck and looked down. “Oh, no, I don’t do that anymore. I stopped traditional gym a while back.” 

“You didn’t fancy the Olympics too then?” Scorpius said with a light laugh.

“Yeah, I did. But I tore my hamstring and had to drop out of the team,” Albus said shortly. 

He forced a small smile and awkwardly turned away from Scorpius, setting his gaze immediately on a free corner of the floor and making a beeline for it. As he walked, his own words echoed in his mind and he wondered why the fuck he’d said that. Scorpius probably thought he was bitter about the whole thing now, which wasn’t true. He’d worked through the bitterness; now it just was what it was. But he’d look really weird if he went back over to Scorpius to labour the point. 

Blocking out the feelings of regret, Albus put his all into working his corkscrew, running it over and over again until he wasn’t sure he could anymore. He didn’t once look over at where his sister was training with Scorpius, he didn’t even talk to anyone. Not until Cole ambled over when the session was almost at an end.

“Don’t worry, I think he saw that,” he said with a wink. 

Before Albus could do much more than gape at him, Cole swanned away with an air of victory. 

* * *

At home that night, Albus was still doing what was, in his opinion, a fine job of not dwelling on the events of Open Gym. If his mind wandered to what he’d said, he started to feel vaguely sick, so he put on loud music to distract himself while he showered and packed his school bag for the next day. He vaguely noticed his phone light up with a notification, the pink and orange logo telling him it was from instagram, which he didn’t really use much. 

_ @lilylunacheer tagged you in a post _

Albus rolled his eyes and tapped the notification. The screen brought up a photo of Lily midway through a standing tuck and the caption read _ great night at open gym, feeling comp ready! Thanks @albus_potter for the lift _followed by a string of emojis. Against his better judgement, he flicked through the photos, feeling the oddest of sensations in his stomach when he got to the last two: Lily and Scorpius in their partner stunt and another which looked as if it had been taken after they’d hit it, both of them smiling at each other candidly. 

Sometimes, Albus thought he could really see himself making a great only child.

_ Thanks for the lift?? I know why you tagged me, _ he typed in a private message to his sister. 

_ You’re welcome x _ , Lily replied almost instantly. _ Love you xx, _she added.

_ Unsistered _ , Albus tapped back, flicking out of the chat with Lily. His messages popped up, none of them particularly recent, but Albus’ eye was drawn to the top of the screen where the words _ 1 message request _ were displayed in blue writing. 

Curious, he clicked on it, thinking he’d probably end up having to ask Lily what that even meant, and he almost toppled off his bed when the icon beside the message loaded to reveal Scorpius’ face.

His heart beating a little bit faster, Albus took a deep breath, swallowed hard and opened the message.

_ Hi, Albus. Sorry to message you out of the blue, I tried to catch you at the gym but you’d already gone. I just wanted to say, I’m really sorry if I upset you earlier. That was such a tactless question on my behalf and I wish I’d never asked it. You don’t owe me any kind of explanation and I’m sorry if you felt pressured to give me one. I really am so sorry, I hope you can forgive me? Scorp x _

Albus felt both excessively hot and freezing cold at the same time. He read the message through three times more, taking it all in, then dropped his phone on top of the bed and dragged both hands down his face. He’d made himself look like a prize idiot. 

Sighing, Albus picked up the phone and opened a reply, his thumbs pausing over the keyboard as he decided what to type. After much deliberation and deleting, he read back over his final message. 

_ Hi, Scorpius, please don’t worry about it at all. You don’t need to be sorry, you weren’t to know. I’m sorry I reacted like that, that was pretty rude of me. I feel like a complete idiot, sorry if I made you feel bad. Not my intention. Good luck for your competition. _

His thumb hovered over the send button, not quite getting around to pressing it. He ran his eyes over the message again, subconsciously glanced up to make sure his bedroom door was closed, added an _ x _ to the end of the message and hit send before he could change his mind. Then he threw his phone as far away from him as he could and left his bedroom. 

It wasn’t until he was about to go to sleep that night that he looked at his phone again. There was no message from Scorpius and when Albus clicked on the one he sent, all he was greeted with was the word _ seen _ in the corner, written in grey. 

He tried not to feel disappointed. 

“So I had a thought,” Thea said, sidling up to him at Open Gym the next week. 

“That doesn’t surprise me, you’re really clever,” Albus deadpanned back. 

“You should ask Scorpius out.”

Albus nearly dropped his kit bag. “I should do _ what_?”

“Ask Scorpius out, like on a date.” Thea shrugged innocently and looped her arm through Albus’. “We were having a good chat the other day.”

“Since when are you friends with him?” 

“Since this week, he’s great,” she said, waving Albus’ question off like it was unimportant. “Anyway, I think he’d be interested. What do you say?”

“I bet he wouldn’t be interested,” Albus muttered mutinously, thinking of that little grey _ seen _ again. He never had replied. 

“But _ you’re _ interested?” Thea urged.

Albus groaned. “Don’t tell anyone, please. I keep making such a tit of myself.” 

“I think he’s rather taken with you,” Thea said with a smile.

Albus felt his face flush and his heart pumped in his ears. “What makes you say that?”

“He talks about you a lot, you know, just whenever he can, in conversation.” Thea had a sly grin on her face as she shrugged casually, clearly enjoying the effect her words were having on Albus. 

“I barely even know him,” Albus tried to protest.

“Exactly,” Thea insisted. “That makes it mean all the more that he keeps talking about you.”

“Do you think…” He stopped walking and hesitated. “Does he even like boys?” 

“No idea, only one way to find out.”

“You know, just because you’re dating Rose now doesn’t mean you’re obliged to couple me up.” 

“We could double date,” Thea smirked. “Me and Rose, you and Scorpius.”

“Will you keep your voice down?” Albus hissed, warily looking around in case someone from Scorpius’ team was in earshot.

“Relax, all the cheer lot are at their competition.”

“Oh yeah,” Albus said, feeling a bit stupid, because he knew that already. “Well, still, stop.”

“I give it three weeks maximum,” Thea said, pushing open the girls’ changing room door and blowing him a kiss. 

The session was far quieter with all of Phoenix Allstars at a competition and Albus made some real progress with his corkscrew, managing to link it in with some other moves. Cole turned up a bit late and recorded a few of Albus’ attempts, handing him his phone back at the end of the session full of selfies pulling ridiculous faces. He did it every time. 

“Thanks,” Albus said dryly.

“Thought you might want a new wallpaper.” Cole winked then screwed his face up in thought. “Then again, you wouldn’t want Scorpius to get jealous.”

“Bye, Cole,” Albus said pointedly, leaving the changing room as quickly as he could.

On his way out of the gym, Albus’ phone buzzed with a text from Lily. 

_ We came fourth. _

He sighed heavily reading the text. Fourth wasn’t terrible, but even Albus knew Worlds bids were only really ever given to first and second place. Another text came through:

_ No Worlds bid :( I got us a deduction. _

If it weren’t already clear from her words, Albus could tell Lily was upset by the lack of ridiculous emojis she normally liked to use. He sighed, climbing into his car and feeling disappointment on behalf of his sister. He didn’t know much about the technical side of cheerleading but he knew a deduction meant Lily had either fallen out of a stunt or touched down during her tumbling and the judges had taken points away. 

He started the engine of his car and plugged his phone into the cable, tapping at the screen until he pulled up the option to make a hands free phonecall to his sister. It rang as he pulled out of the gym car park. Driving had come easily to Albus and he’d managed to pass his test less than a year after he had his first lesson; his parents had rewarded him with a second hand car of his own, although Albus suspected it was partly a gift because they felt bad he wasn’t going to Paris like James. 

“Hello?” Lily said moodily after many rings. 

“Alright, Lil. I’m just on the way home from gym. You okay?”

“No, it’s my fault we didn’t get a bid,” she said with a sniff. In the background, Albus could hear someone protesting Lily’s words.

“I’m sure it’s not just your fault. What happened?”

“I loaded into the first partner stunt all wrong and it just came crashing down, Scorpius caught me but it still counts as a stunt fall. We got five points taken off, without the deduction we would have come second and probably gotten a bid.” She spoke in a short, clipped tone. “Everyone on Twitter is talking about me falling.”

“Lily, stop looking,” Albus said firmly. 

“Can’t, I have to look. They’re right anyway.” 

“Things like that happen though, Lil. It wasn’t your day today, next time will be better. And I’m sure the rest of your performance was brilliant.”

“Next time has to be better or we won’t get a Worlds bid,” Lily replied, someone’s murmuring voice sounding in the background. “Albus,” Lily said.

“Yes?” Albus replied in confusion.

“No, not you, Scorpius just asked who I was talking to.” Lily sighed down the phone. “Well, I’ll see you at home tomorrow. Bye, Al.”

He barely had a chance to say bye back before she hung up on him. 

Nobody was home when Albus got back but his mum had left him dinner in the fridge and he stuck it in the microwave without much enthusiasm. While his shepherd’s pie revolved around in the microwave, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and habitually checked it. 

There was one notification waiting for him:

_Scorp (@scorpiusmalfoy) started following you. _

Albus eyed his phone with suspicion, as if it might be playing a trick on him. He flicked open the notification and Scorpius’ instagram profile appeared. His bio read _ Phoenix Black, @boyswhocheer ambassador, natural blond _with a scattering of emojis. He had almost ten thousand followers and Albus grinned to himself, feeling rather pleased that Scorpius had followed him, especially after he hadn’t ever replied to Albus’ message. 

Scorpius’ profile was private but he pressed the _ follow back _button, sending him a request, then tapped the side of his phone case in agitation. Was it weird that he’d followed back almost immediately? Just as he was going to undo the request and wait a bit longer, a notification popped up.

_ Scorp (@scorpiusmalfoy) accepted your follow request. _

Albus swallowed and clicked on his profile, all of his photos now visible. They were almost all of him cheering in some way: in his uniform at a competition, a video of his tumbling pass at the gym, lots of him stunting with Lily. Then amongst all of those was a photo of him with his mum and a man who could only have been his dad; they had the same icy blond hair, although the older man’s was long and pulled back into a ponytail. Albus clicked on it to see the three Malfoys next to a pretty river, bundled up for cold weather, with the caption _ my biggest supporters/inspirations _and a scarf emoji. 

The most recent post was one from that day, of Scorpius in his Phoenix uniform holding a trophy. The caption read _ it wasn’t quite Black’s day today, but however the run, I’m proud to wear this uniform and to be a part of this team! Who’s ready to smash it in Birmingham? _followed by a string of inspirational hashtags.

He smiled to himself and sat down to eat his dinner, unable to stop looking at Scorpius’ photos as he did. There were several videos of him tumbling and Albus couldn’t help but admire how good he was. As he was scrolling, a notification popped up.

_ scorpiusmalfoy liked your post. _

Confused (because he hadn’t recently made a post), Albus clicked on the notification and was faced with a picture of himself from almost a year ago. It was a silly one Lily had taken of him sitting on the steps outside the gym. She’d caught him off guard laughing at something and, while Albus didn’t take many pictures of himself, he’d quite liked that one. Enough to post it with the caption _ when @coletheman makes another pun about how gym is ‘flipping brilliant’ and u trying to be polite. _

He cringed at his previous attempt at humour then found himself staring at the bottom of the picture. _ Liked by scorpiusmalfoy and 16 others. _

Albus didn’t update his instagram that much but the picture was from last year and would have taken a bit of scrolling back for Scorpius to find it. He sat back, pleased to know he wasn’t the only one who’d been looking at the other’s pictures. And hadn’t Scorpius followed _ him _ first?

His thumb hovered over Scorpius’ icon, accompanied by a green dot and the words _ active now. _ He need only click and type the word _ hello _ and they could be having a conversation. Scorpius was right there. 

But he bottled it and closed the app instead.

* * *

At Open Gym the following week, Scorpius was one of the first people Albus saw when he got into the changing room. 

“Thanks for following me back on instagram,” Scorpius said politely.

They were going to talk about that then.

“Er, you’re welcome.” Albus rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry about your competition last week.”

Scorpius shrugged. “You know it was my fault we got a deduction?” 

Albus frowned. “Lily seems to think it was hers.” 

Eyebrows shooting up, Scorpius shook his head firmly. “No, it was all me! I didn’t catch her foot properly! We missed out on a Worlds bid because I messed up.” He spoke solemnly. 

“You can still get a bid, can’t you?” 

“Hopefully,” Scorpius sighed. “We have one more chance this season.” 

“Well I wish you the best of luck.”

They parted ways once they were inside the gym, Scorpius going off to work with Lily and Albus making his way to his usual corner. He wasn’t as focused as he usually was, finding his attention frequently wandering to what his sister was doing with Scorpius. On the pretence of getting water, Albus strolled over to where they were training and watched Scorpius catch Lily as she came out of the stunt. 

“Looks good, guys,” Albus said, for lack of a better comment. 

Scorpius suddenly smirked and folded his arms. “Do you want to have a go, Al?” 

Albus stuttered the beginning of a response before Lily interrupted him. 

“He’s done it before!” she put in helpfully. 

Scorpius beamed, unfolding his arms and looking between Albus and Lily with utter delight. 

“Yeah, once, ages ago on holiday…” Albus said, feeling uncomfortable. 

“And you were really good! Go on, Al, I bet we could still do it.” Lily’s eyes were shining with an excitement Albus knew had little to do with the stunt. This was Lily’s attempt at subtly getting him and Scorpius to interact, not that she knew they’d already been interacting quite a bit where she couldn’t see. 

“Fine, I’ll try, but I don’t even know if I can do it anymore.” Albus pushed his hair back from his eyes. 

“You’ll be great,” Scorpius assured him, gesturing for Albus to come and stand where he was. “I’ll be your assist.” 

“We don’t need an assist,” Lily said confidently with a toss of her ponytail. 

“Uh, yes we fucking do.” Albus said with a roll of his eyes, going to stand next to Scorpius. 

“For the first one, at least,” Scorpius reasoned. “Okay, Albus, you stand here. Lily, in front.” He manoeuvred them into position so that Albus was holding onto Lily’s waist, her hands taking hold of his wrists. “We dip on one, toss three, catch her feet on five. Just go to prep height, catch her feet at your shoulders,” Scorpius explained.

“Yeah, I remember,” Albus said, trying to ignore how close his face was to Scorpius’. 

“And I’m assisting, so Lily, start with your left foot in my hand.” He set himself firmly at their side and took hold of her foot. “Ready? Five, six, seven, eight…”

They dipped as one and Albus put all his strength into tossing his sister high into the air above him, keeping a close eye on her feet. Scorpius placed one at his shoulder for him and he caught the other so Lily was standing in his hands, his elbows bent so she stood at his shoulder height. Albus could feel that she was used to this stunt, she held her own weight up there impressively. 

“Nice!” Scorpius said excitedly, looking up at Lily in the air and then straight over to Albus, an angelic beam on his face. They were mere inches from each other and Albus felt himself grinning back. Scorpius faltered, his smile falling a bit, then he shook his head firmly and looked up at Lily. “Pop off on one!”

“Al, that was amazing!” Lily exclaimed as soon as she was back on the floor. “I don’t even think we needed the assist, we should try it to extension!” Her eyes shone with infectious excitement. 

Somehow, Lily and Scorpius convinced him to do it several more times until it was actually quite good. Not as good as when Scorpius and Lily did it, but fairly solid. Albus could admit that he was rather enjoying himself; it felt good to see such rapid progression. It had nothing to do with the way Scorpius kept touching his arm each time they hit the stunt, or how excited and pleased he looked about the whole thing. 

“Don’t let my mum see you doing this,” Scorpius laughed. “She’ll try to recruit you for the team.”

Lily scoffed. “Albus hates cheer.”

Albus glared at her for making such a flippant comment and looked to Scorpius, who had his eyebrows raised and a smirk on his face. 

“I do not _ hate _ cheer,” he protested quickly. “I’ve never once said that.”

“He thinks we aren’t_ serious _ enough,” Lily continued casually. 

“Actually what I said was cheerleading wasn’t something I could personally see myself doing because of all the extra performance stuff you have to do. I think _ I’m _ too serious for cheer,” he explained desperately, worried he would offend Scorpius. “Not that what you do isn’t serious, it is! Seriously, er, serious. I just meant-”

“Albus, it’s okay,” Scorpius interrupted with a forced chuckle. “You hate cheer, it’s cool.” 

“No! I don’t-”

“You hate cheer and judge anyone who does it and think it shouldn’t even be called a sport, it’s fine, we all like different things.” He had a very serious expression on his face and Albus suddenly realised that Scorpius wasn’t joking. 

“What? No, that isn’t what-”

Scorpius cut him off with a sudden roar of laughter. “Your face! I can’t even keep that going any longer, you look too flustered.” 

Lily laughed too and flounced off to get water, leaving Albus unsure how to react to Scorpius, who was still giggling. 

“Sorry, couldn’t resist.” He shrugged and tossed his blond hair out of his eyes. “And anyway,” he lowered his voice a bit and leaned closer to Albus, “even if you did hate cheer, I’d still like you.”

It took Albus all of eight minutes insisting to himself he wouldn’t before he sent Scorpius a message that night. The little green circle next to his face, indicating he was _ active now _ was too difficult to resist; Albus liked talking to Scorpius, there was nothing wrong with that. 

_ Thanks for teaching me the stunt tonight x _

Almost instantly, the words _ typing… _ appeared and Albus grinned to himself, settling back against his pillows comfortably. 

_You’re welcome! You’re so good at it! I know you don’t remotely want to but you’d make such a great cheerleader xx_

_ Thanks, you’re a good teacher :) haha, I think I’ll leave that to you, I don’t have nearly enough pep x _

_ I think you’d surprise yourself, but fair enough! You know Black are at a distinct disadvantage having only two boys, we compete against teams with far more, so if you ever change your mind… ;) xx _

_ If I ever have a major change of heart you’ll be the first to know! _

Albus watched the little bubble with his message float up into the chat then he smiled to himself.

_xx _, he added as a separate message.

_ Please do, you’d look great in my uniform ;) xxx _

Albus’ eyebrows involuntarily shot upwards and he clutched his phone to his chest. He wasn’t used to this, the flirting over text thing. Other than some misinformed ‘girlfriends’ in year seven and eight, the only relationship history Albus had was a drunken kiss with a boy in the year above at someone’s eighteenth. He hadn’t ever really messaged like this with someone he liked; he’d never even been on a date before. 

He closed down instagram and opened a new message, quickly typing and sending a plea for help to Cole. Even though he would be insufferable for five minutes, he’d actually be able to offer some solid advice. 

* * *

“I knew you fancied him,” Cole said smugly, holding eye contact with Albus as he bounced up and down on the trampoline they were both standing on. He grinned and threw himself into a backflip.

Albus sighed, wondering why he’d agreed to meet Cole at a trampoline park of all places. Any chance of having a rational, adult discussion about anything was close to impossible when Cole refused to even stay upright for more than three minutes. 

“Yes, exactly, I fancy him, that’s what I’m literally telling you in words,” Albus said exasperatedly, bobbing about on the springy trampoline at his feet. “What am I supposed to do about it?” 

“Ask him out,” Cole said with a shrug, this time completing a front flip. 

“But _ how? _ ” Albus said desperately. “I can’t just say _ will you go out with me _can I?” 

Cole snorted with laughter. “No, don’t say that.” 

“Then what? Come on, I’m genuinely looking for an answer here.” 

“Well, you’ve been messaging, haven’t you? All you do-” He broke off, his eyes fixated on a point over Albus’ shoulder. “The zipline’s open!”

With that proclamation, he went bouncing off. Albus sighed after him, deciding then and there to save this conversation until they weren’t surrounded by distractions. 

An hour or so later, sat in the McDonalds opposite, Albus planned to ask his best friend again for some actual advice. Cole had a McFlurry in front of him to which he was carefully adding his own sweets, purchased from the Tesco next door. The resultant combination (jelly beans, popping candy, smarties and chocolate buttons) looked frankly disgusting and Albus wrinkled his nose. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be an Olympic athlete?” 

“This is a dessert of champions,” Cole replied, swirling the ice-cream around with a plastic spoon. “Anyway, everything in moderation.”

“Nothing about that is _ moderate _,” Albus commented, taking a spoonful of his own, normal, actually-on-the-menu McFlurry. 

“To each their own.” Cole shrugged and pointed his spoon at Albus. “So, when are you going to ask Scorpius out?” 

“I don’t know,” Albus sighed. “I don’t even know if I should, what if he’s just like _ absolutely not _ and then it’s awkward?” 

“The worst that can happen is he says no, but it doesn’t have to be awkward. You tried, just chalk it up as something that wasn’t meant to be, whatever.” Cole demonstrated a casual shrug then smirked. “Get it? _ Chalk it up. _ Because you’re a gymnast.”

“I… I don’t even think that phrase makes sense.” Albus shook his head fondly at his best friend. “How do I even go about asking him?”

Cole chewed on a jelly bean then swallowed thoughtfully. “You two are messaging, yes?”

“On instagram, yes,” Albus replied, willing himself not to go red.

“Every day?” 

“Er, most days,” Albus admitted.

“And who starts the conversations?”

Albus considered his question, staring into the depths of his ice cream. “It’s sort of just been one long, continuous conversation.”

Cole beamed like he’d just been awarded a gold medal. “Oh my god, he likes you back.” 

His heart thumping, Albus tried to laugh casually. “I don’t know.” 

“I do, he likes you, Al. Ask him out.” 

Albus sighed. “I’m not sure how much clearer I can make it that I _ don’t know how to do that _.” 

“Find an excuse to meet up somewhere, just the two of you. Get talking about a new film that’s out, say you want to go and see it, I can almost guarantee he’ll say he wants to see it too, and then _ bam_, you suggest that you go together.”

“What if he thinks I mean just as friends?” 

“He won’t,” Cole replied slyly. 

“How do you _ know _ that?” Albus had abandoned his ice cream and was fidgeting with his fingers instead. 

Cole clapped his fist to his chest majestically. “Because I am Cole Flint, bearer of All Knowledge.”

“Fine, but if this goes wrong, I’m entirely blaming you.”

“Okay, sunshine.” Cole sucked at his spoon in the most complacent way possible. “Have fun on your date with Scorpius.”

* * *

Tuesday was freerunning night, when the gym held a designated session. Albus had finally nailed the technique of his corkscrew and he couldn’t resist posting a video of it to his instagram where he knew Scorpius would see it. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for a message to come through.

_ Wow Albus! This is unreal😍your smile when you realise you’ve landed it is my favourite part!xxx _

_ Thanks, I’ve been working on it ages :) xxx _

Albus tapped the side of his phone case in thought then added a second message.

_ Have you got training tomorrow night? xx _

_ Yeah, every Wednesday _

There was a pause, Scorpius was still typing so Albus waited for him to finish. The notification disappeared and reappeared several times until eventually another message came through. 

_ Why do you ask?xxx _

Albus’ heart rate picked up significantly because surely this was some kind of opportunity. Cole would tell him to take this moment and make something of it, so that’s what he would do. 

_ The new Saw film came out this week but my mate Cole is too much of a wimp to go and see it with me haha _

He could hear his blood beating in his ears as he stared at the message. Scorpius had seen it but wasn’t typing anything back and Albus immediately began to overthink every word he’d said. He was about to change the subject to something completely different when Scorpius’ reply popped up.

_Ashamed to say I too am a total wimp and wouldn’t go near Saw._

Albus swallowed hard, feeling extremely disappointed. Still, at least Scorpius had let him down gently. Maybe it wouldn’t be crushingly awkward the next time they ran into each other. He started to type _ that’s alright, I’ll just go by myself _when another message from Scorpius came through.

_ But there are other films we could see? Are you free on Friday?xxx _

An uncontrollable grin spread over Albus’ face. Was this a date? Were they arranging a date?

_ Yes, I’m free on Friday! What sort of films do you like?xxx _

_ Have you heard of Hayao Miyazaki before?xxx _

_ To be honest, no, I haven’t seen it. What’s it about?xxx _

_ Haha, no, that’s the name of the director! He co-founded Studio Ghibli, they made Spirited Away if you know it?xxx _

_ I’ve heard of it but I’ve never seen it xxx _

_ Well, I’m a total nerd for his films, and they’re showing one of them (it’s called My Neighbour Totoro) at cinemas again this weekend. Do you want to go with me?xxx_

Albus felt like doing some kind of ridiculous victory dance. In fact, he sort of did, squirming about on top of his bedcovers. This had gone better than expected. 

_ Yeah, that sounds great! I can drive us if you want?xxx _

_ Brilliant! I’ll send you my number, one second xxx _

So that was how Albus found himself sat in his car on Friday night, running his hands through his hair and staring at himself in the pull down mirror on the sunshield. He was fairly sure this was a date, Cole had told him it was a date, but he didn’t actually know if Scorpius thought it was a date too.

A sharp rap on the passenger side window made Albus jump a mile and he clutched at his heart, falling into laughter when Scorpius went from waving to covering his mouth with both hands and looking apologetic. He quickly clicked the button to unlock the passenger door and Scorpius opened it.

“I’m sorry!” he said immediately. “I didn’t mean to scare you!”

“It’s okay, er, get in,” Albus said, trying to cover his reaction by focusing on taking his hoodie off the passenger seat and reaching behind him to put it in the back. 

“Your car is nice,” Scorpius said politely, climbing in. He was wearing black skinny jeans, painfully white converse and a mint green t-shirt with a floral design which fitted him perfectly and it was then that Albus realised he’d never seen Scorpius out of his gym clothes before. 

Unsurprisingly, he looked very good. Albus was rendered a bit speechless.

“I’m nowhere near passing my test,” Scorpius sighed casually. “I’m terrible at parking, and reversing. You know how there’s that joke that gays can’t drive? That’s me.” He gave a little laugh and rubbed the back of his neck.

Albus internally froze. They had never talked about sexuality and despite his earlier doubts, he was fairly sure by now that Scorpius must like boys in at least some respect. (He’d been _ so _ flirty with Albus.) But nothing had ever come up in conversation until now. 

Deciding on the spot, Albus smiled. “Well, I seem to manage,” he said casually. 

A huge grin spread over Scorpius’ face and he instantly knew that had been the right thing to say. 

He started the engine as Scorpius put his seatbelt on. “I’m looking forward to this film.”

“Oh, it’s just lovely!” Scorpius lit up with excitement, his eyes shining. “There’s this little girl, Satsuke, and her and her family move to… wait, I’ll just let you watch it.” He laughed a little awkwardly.

“I looked it up. Not the plot or anything, I didn’t want to spoil it for myself,” he said quickly when Scorpius looked momentarily horrified. “Just googled it and read the synopsis, looked at some pictures. I’d seen the rabbit thing before but I thought it was a Pokemon.” He laughed.

Scorpius clutched at his heart in mock offence. “_ Rabbit thing? _ A _ Pokemon? _ Albus, are you _ trying _ to hurt me here?” 

Albus grinned. “Sorry. Now you know how it feels when you call my corkscrew a _ twisty flip thing_.” 

“That is _ not the same… _” Scorpius said dramatically, pointedly looking out of the window and away from Albus. 

“What kind of animal is it, then? The rabbit thing.” Albus took his eyes off the road to quickly glance at Scorpius’ reaction; he looked, quite frankly, adorable in his total disgust at Albus’ question. 

“A totoro isn’t an animal, it’s a forest spirit,” he said sulkily. “You’ll see in the film.” 

With his car parked outside the cinema, Albus stepped out and tied his hoodie around his waist, waiting for Scorpius to close the car door so he could lock it. He stuffed the keys into his pocket and they sort of met at the front of the car. 

“Well, er, we’re here,” Albus said for some unknown reason. His brain was doing that short circuit thing he was coming to associate with Scorpius. 

“And with plenty of time to spare.” Scorpius glanced at his watch with a grin and suddenly sped up, pulling Albus with him by the elbow. “Come on, we want to get good seats.” 

They stood in the queue to buy tickets. The cinema was fairly busy, which Albus had expected with it being a Friday night, but they got to the front of the line quickly.

“Can we have two adult tickets for _ My Neighbour Totoro _, please?” Scorpius said politely. 

The sales assistant sighed. “Sorry, sold out,” she said in a bored voice.

“What?” Scorpius turned wide eyes on Albus; he looked so heartbroken it sort of made Albus want to bury his face into a pillow. “How can it be sold out?”

“Limited showing, ennit,” the sales assistant said, probably not for the first time that day. “I got VIP Premium seats left only.” She tapped at her keyboard. “Thirty-two pounds fifty each.” 

“Oh, never mind then,” Scorpius said sadly. 

“Hang on.” Albus rifled through his wallet and pulled out his cinema club card. “Remind me what discount I get on premium seats with that.”

The sales assistant inspected the card. “A Film Club card entitles the holder to three films per month or two films at premium rate, plus a twenty percent discount on snacks and drinks,” she rattled off without any enthusiasm. 

“Excellent, I haven’t used it yet this month.” Albus handed the card over. “So we’ll take two of the Premium tickets, please.”

Scorpius stared at him. “Albus, are you sure? It’s only the second, what if you want to use it again this month?” 

“Of course I’m sure.” Albus shrugged. 

Scorpius opened his wallet and started withdrawing cash. “Well let me give you-”

“It’s alright, the card was a Christmas present.” He checked that the sales assistant wasn’t listening and leaned closer to Scorpius. “And I’ve never had anyone to share it with before.”

Scorpius looked very pleased and he let out a happy sort of sigh. “Well, thank you. And I’ll get the popcorn.” 

Albus grinned and nodded. “Do you like salty or sweet?”

“Actually, I’m one of those weirdos who likes a mixture of both.” He held both hands up in admittance. 

“That’s what I always get too!” Albus exclaimed, a bit louder than he’d meant to. 

“No way! I’ve never met anyone else who doesn’t crucify me for liking it.” 

There was a pause, something passing between them, or so it felt like to Albus. Maybe he was being stupid, because they were only talking about popcorn preferences, but he was suddenly overcome with a desire to kiss Scorpius. He looked adorable, all pink-cheeked and blushing with excitement, his blond hair softly tousled and falling into his bright eyes.

The sales assistant cleared her throat pointedly and Albus jumped. “Your tickets, sir,” she said, sounding a bit annoyed.

“Right, yes, thanks.” Albus accepted them and hurried away to hide how flustered he was all of a sudden, Scorpius close behind him. 

“Do you want a drink?” he said casually; clearly that hadn’t just been a moment for him too. 

“Er, yes please, a coke or something.”

He ordered two drinks and an extra large popcorn, handing one of the paper cups of coke to Albus. “Don’t worry about straws, I have reusable ones with me.” He produced a pale pink pouch with a flourish, unzipping it to remove two metal straws.

“Of course you carry metal straws with you.”

“Haven’t you seen that video of the poor sea turtles with plastic straws stuck up their noses?” Scorpius looked stricken. 

“I have, I’m just not as organised as you.” Albus sipped his drink through the metal straw. 

It turned out VIP Premium seats were incredibly fancy, with controls to recline and a pop out foot rest and everything. Scorpius looked positively thrilled as he played with the buttons on his, sliding the seat back and forth with a buzzing sound. He got it situated to a position he was happy with and sighed with content, smiling over at Albus.

“You’re going to love this film.” As he spoke, he rubbed his hands up and down his bare arms and shivered. “Are we sat right under the air conditioning?” 

Albus looked up and considered. He could feel cool air gently circulating around but as he was wearing a denim shirt with long sleeves, it was quite pleasant. “I don’t think so, are you cold?”

“A bit,” Scorpius admitted. “I’ll warm up.” 

“You are only in a t-shirt.” Albus thought for a second, quickly practising the words in his head before he said them. “Do you want my hoodie? I’m not wearing it.” 

Scorpius’ mouth turned into a little o of surprise then he smiled shyly. “Yes please.” 

Albus untied the sleeves from his waist and pulled the dark green, zip up hoodie out from underneath him, shaking it out and passing it to Scorpius. “There you go, excuse any old receipts in the pockets.”

“Thank you.” Scorpius still had that sweet little shy smile on his face as he accepted the hoodie and threaded his arms through the sleeves. It was just a bit too big for him, making him appear cosy and even softer than usual. Albus felt a pleasant squirm in his stomach at the sight of Scorpius in his hoodie; this felt like such a _ date _ thing to do. 

Albus would like to say he’d enjoyed every second of the film, that he now fully understood that Totoro was a forest spirit and not a rabbit, and that he could tell anyone what had happened in the plot. Unfortunately he couldn’t have done any of that, because his attention was almost focused entirely on reaching for then subtly taking Scorpius’ hand between the seats, lacing their fingers together and giving each other little hand squeezes throughout the film. He couldn’t remember the final third of the plot, because his thoughts were completely occupied with vague plans to lean over and kiss Scorpius. 

Before he could, however, action any plans, the film came to an end and the credits started to roll to some beautiful music. Scorpius glanced over at Albus and his eyes were shining.

“It always gets me,” he said with a sniff, a couple of tears rolling down his cheeks. 

All Albus could think of was the fact they were still holding hands, even though they needed to get up and leave.

Scorpius didn’t let go, so Albus didn’t either, even as they walked out of the screen together. 

“And the part where she finds Mei again always makes me tear up,” Scorpius continued to explain why he was crying, their fingers still interlaced, his arms still encased in Albus’ hoodie. 

“I liked the part with the cat bus,” Albus said when Scorpius left a pause. 

“Oh yes, Catbus is so beloved!” Scorpius suddenly perked up, squeezing Albus’ hand in excitement. “I just realised: Catbus, _ Albus.” _

He giggled away to himself and Albus wondered if he was thinking about the fact they were still holding hands too. They left the cinema, stepping out into the cool, clear night air, and still their hands remained connected. Anyone looking would have assumed they were boyfriends, Albus thought to himself. He liked that thought. 

“If you dated someone called Cat, your ship name could be _ Catbus _,” Scorpius mused as they came to a bit of a stop outside the cinema. “Cat and Albus, Catbus.”

Albus looked at their joined hands. “I don’t want to date someone called Cat,” he said quietly, in what he hoped was a flirty way. 

“No?” Scorpius squeaked. 

Albus met his eyes and shook his head. Time stood still for a second. 

He wasn’t sure who moved first, but their lips crashed together in an instant, his free hand coming to find Scorpius’ other, the action pulling their bodies closer together. 

* * *

Albus didn’t see Scorpius again until Sunday night at Open Gym, just enough time for him to work himself up into a complete flap over seeing him again in person after their date. They’d been texting non-stop ever since; Albus had fallen asleep the night before with his phone pressed up against one cheek, mid-conversation with Scorpius. He couldn’t go twenty minutes without thinking about Scorpius in some way and each time he did, an uncontrollable smile took over.

It had taken Lily all of thirty seconds to get it out of him and she was thrilled. Although Albus couldn’t help but feel she was jumping the gun a bit. They’d been on one date and it had been lovely but it was still very new territory for Albus (and as far as he knew, Scorpius too) and he didn’t know how things were supposed to proceed from here. He supposed arranging another time for them to hang out just the two of them was a good idea and he vowed to himself that he’d try to suggest it when he saw Scorpius in person at the gym.

He was already in the boys’ changing room when Albus arrived and he turned around when he heard the door open, his expression lighting up when his eyes fell on Albus. Scorpius had a headband on his head, holding back his fringe, and it somehow made him look even better than usual. His face was even softer like that and Albus knew he probably had quite the ridiculous grin on his face to be seeing him again; he was glad Cole wasn’t there that week to tease him. 

“Hi,” Albus said quietly. All he could think about was how it had felt to kiss him, how much he wanted to again. 

“Hello,” Scorpius said a bit breathlessly. “It’s nice to see you again.” 

Albus wished more than anything that there weren’t several other boys in the changing room in that moment, that they were alone together. 

“I like your hairband,” Albus said instead, hanging his kit bag up and trying to behave normally. 

“Thanks. It’s just where it’s at that annoying length, you know? I’ll get it cut before comp next weekend.” He adjusted the hairband. 

“Well I think it suits you.” Albus sat beside him on the changing room bench to take his shoes off, aware that they were now in very close proximity to each other. 

“Thank you,” Scorpius said a bit stiffly, lacing up one of his cheer shoes. 

Albus got up to put his shoes away before Scorpius spoke again. “Er, actually, I was going to ask you something.” 

From the serious and anguished expression on Scorpius’ face, Albus suddenly felt worried. Scorpius looked like he was about to explain that Friday had been a mistake and that he didn’t think they should have kissed and could they please never talk about it again oh and by the way delete my number. 

“What?” Albus tentatively sat back down beside him. 

“Well, you don’t have to of course, but I was wondering if you might like to come… to my competition, at the weekend. It would be cool to, you know, have you there.” 

“Oh.” Albus blinked at him in surprise. Scorpius was asking him to come and support him? Sort of like… a boyfriend might? 

“You don’t want to, that’s okay, they’re not that exciting.” Scorpius spoke at a higher pitch than usual, not meeting Albus’ eye.

“No, I do want to!” he said quickly. “I’d love to come… to support you.” 

Clear, obvious relief spread over Scorpius’ face. “Really?”

“Yeah, that would be fun. Where’s the competition again?” 

“Birmingham, we compete Sunday,” Scorpius explained. “I don’t know how many of Lily’s competitions you’ve been to before but it sort of ends up being a weekend-long thing. We’re travelling up on Friday. My parents have rented this huge Air BnB up there with far more rooms than we need so you could stay the Saturday night if you wanted and we could… maybe, um, do something, in the day, if you want? Mum’ll be busy at the arena with her younger teams and Dad always stays at the venue to make sure she doesn’t just survive the whole day on coffee. And then the Sunday I’d be around almost the whole time, we leave for warm up about an hour before we’re on the mat but there’s stuff to do and my dad’ll be there.” 

Albus couldn’t believe his ears. What Scorpius was describing sounded very couple-y and he suddenly felt a bit nervous about the whole thing. They’d only been on one date and Scorpius wanted him to spend the weekend with his parents? 

“Will your parents mind?” Albus asked tentatively. 

“Actually, it was Mum’s idea in the first place,” Scorpius shrugged. “Maybe it’s a bit, you know, much? I know we haven’t really talked about… er, things. We could just hang out sometime this week instead, if you like.” 

“Do you want to talk about, um, things?” Albus said, feeling his face heat up. 

“I’d like to, if you would,” Scorpius said shyly. 

Albus very much hoped that he was reading into Scorpius’ body language to mean what he hoped it did, that he too wanted ‘things’ to become what Albus wanted them to. 

“Yes, I think we should.” Albus cleared his throat. “I’m not very good at any of this stuff, I’ve never had like a… you know… a relationship before.” 

Scorpius let out a tiny giggle. “Neither have I.” He twisted his fingertips together and took a deep breath. “I really like you, Albus.”

“I like you too, a lot,” Albus replied quietly, trying to ignore the other boys in the changing room who were currently racing around, one having stolen the other’s phone. 

“So, would you like to, sort of, um, be together?” Scorpius asked tentatively. 

Albus nodded enthusiastically and before he’d even instructed his brain to speak, he found himself talking. “I really want to kiss you right now,” he blurted out then immediately clapped his hand over his mouth.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Scorpius said with a grin, then he looked around the changing room surreptitiously and placed his hand on the top of Albus’ thigh. “I really want to kiss you too.” 

Both Albus and Scorpius arrived for the start of Open Gym a little later than normal that week, long enough for everyone else to have cleared out of the changing room for a few minutes, for Scorpius to ‘find his shoe’ and for Albus to ‘help him find it’. It made the whole session extra enjoyable.

“So what do you think about coming to Birmingham?” Scorpius said after Open Gym was over; he was waiting for a lift home and Albus was waiting with him, both of them sat on the steps outside the gym. (Lily had gone home with one of her friends for a sleepover.)

“I’d really like to come, I’d like to see you compete,” Albus said, subtly resting his hand on Scorpius’ knee. 

“Great, I’ll let my mum know. She’ll be thrilled.”

“Will she?” Albus grinned.

Scorpius rubbed at the back of his neck in discomfort. “Yeah, she sort of guessed I liked you quite early on.” He laughed. “And then she said you seem like a _ nice, young man _. Why do mums always say things like that?” 

Albus joined him in laughter. “I think they learn these things at Mum School.”

“What are you doing this week? I have training on Monday and Wednesday and then Birmingham on Friday,” he rattled off like he was reading from a script. “Are you free on Tuesday?”

“Tuesday is freerunning night here,” Albus explained with a shrug. “But I could-”

“No, don’t miss it!” Scorpius said quickly.

“I’d rather see you,” Albus said boldly, attempting what he hoped was a flirty smirk. 

Scorpius beamed and thought for a second. “Maybe I could come too? You can teach me some stuff,” he hesitated, “unless I’d just get in the way.”

“No, you can definitely come! I think you’d really enjoy it.” 

“Okay, I’ll do that, then.” Scorpius looked very pleased with himself. “Oh, my mum is here.” He squinted at the car driving into the car park. “And my dad, I don’t know why they both... “ He trailed off, realisation dawning across his face.

“What’s wrong?”

Scorpius sighed dramatically. “Well, I think they both came in the hopes that they would… meet you.” He dropped his head into his hands as the car came to a stop in front of the steps. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, you don’t need to be-”

He was interrupted by the passenger window rolling down and Scorpius’ mum smiling widely out of it directly at Albus. “Hello,” she said cheerfully. 

“Mum,” Scorpius said, quickly standing up and pulling Albus up with him. “This is Albus, Lily’s brother and my, er…” He looked between his mum and Albus, leaving the sentence unfinished.

“Boyfriend,” Albus said, in as casual of a tone as he could.

“Yes, boyfriend, Albus is my boyfriend.” Scorpius made a point of taking Albus’ hand as he spoke and they shared a quick smile. 

“It’s so lovely to meet you, Albus. I’m Astoria, and this is Draco.” She leaned back in her seat so Albus could see Scorpius’ dad behind the steering wheel. He waved politely and faintly said _ hello_. 

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Albus said in his politest voice.

“Did Scorpius speak to you about Birmingham this weekend?” she said, sounding business-like. 

“Yes he did, I’d love to come. Thank you for inviting me, I just have to, er, check with my parents too.” 

“Of course, we’d love to have you there.” She smiled genuinely; Albus noticed her and Scorpius shared the same kind, glowing beam. “Not just because I’m determined to have you on my team next year,” she added. 

“Oh, I don’t think I’d be a very good cheerleader,” Albus mumbled dismissively. 

“_Mum,” _ Scorpius said, sounding a bit embarrassed. 

“Have you got a lift home, my love?” she asked.

“Yeah, my car’s just over there.” Albus pointed vaguely towards the car park. 

She cocked her head to one side and clutched at her heart. “That was nice of you to wait for Scorpius.”

“Mum, please,” Scorpius hissed desperately. 

“We’ll just turn the car around,” she said pointedly, rolling up the window as they drove away.

“Sorry about that,” Scorpius said immediately. 

“Don’t be, she seems lovely!” Albus tried to reassure Scorpius, who was looking somewhat agitated over the interaction. 

“Well, I’ll see you on Tuesday,” Scorpius said, holding himself a little stiffly. 

“Yes, see you then.”

There was a short pause and they both moved towards each other, embracing in what started as an awkward hug but quickly melted into something more genuine. Albus withdrew just slightly, enough to peck Scorpius on the lips, and they shared a smile. 

“Bye,” Scorpius whispered.

“Bye,” Albus echoed, reluctant to let him go. 

But eventually they did part and Scorpius went in one direction to his parents’ car, Albus in the other. Scorpius gave him a sweet little wave as he climbed into the back seat of the car and then blew him a kiss, just before closing the door behind him.

Albus drove all the way home with a stupid smile on his face. 

* * *

“You came,” Albus said, a bit breathlessly as Scorpius ambled his way into the gym with his Phoenix Allstars kit bag thrown over his shoulder. 

“Of course I did, I said I would.” Scorpius laughed and pulled Albus into a hug. 

Albus couldn’t help but glance over at Scorpius, his _ boyfriend _, and admire him as they walked to the changing room together. He looked a little more reserved than usual, perhaps he was nervous, but he still had that same effortless adorable energy to him. 

“You had your hair cut,” Albus noted as Scorpius pushed open the door. “No hairband.”

“Oh, yeah, my mum did it for me.” He shrugged and played with his hair. “I think it’s too short.” 

“No, it looks lovely,” Albus told him as they hung their kit bags up side by side. “I still can’t believe that’s your natural hair colour.” 

Scorpius chuckled. “Everyone thinks I must dye it.” 

“I did when I first met you, I thought you must have gone to some fancy hairdresser to get it that colour.” 

“Nope, literally just my mum cuts it at home, she’s not even a qualified hairdresser,” Scorpius explained with a laugh. “She almost cut my ear off once when I was little and couldn’t sit still. She likes to remind me of that all the time.” 

“That’s adorable,” Albus told him, smiling softly, then he grinned when he saw what Scorpius was doing. “Not today.” He gently removed Scorpius’ cheer shoe from his hand before he could put it on. 

“Why not?” Scorpius looked offended.

“We don’t wear shoes in the gym,” Albus explained. 

“This is going to be a bit different, isn’t it.” Scorpius sighed and put his cheer shoes back in their special case. 

Scorpius looked adorably excited at literally everything Albus was telling him as he explained some of the basics of freerunning and how it varied to traditional gymnastics. He was keen to start having a go straight away, which didn’t really come as much of a surprise, and the first thing he asked was if Albus could teach him to do _ that twisty flip thing. _

Of course Scorpius already had a strong background in tumbling, so he picked up new things quite quickly. It had been almost an hour and he’d got quite good at it, even if he landed every time then snapped his arms to his sides like he was in the middle of a cheer routine.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this!” he said excitedly after maybe the eighth attempt.

“You’re good at this,” Albus told him enthusiastically; his excitement was infectious. 

“I’ll try one more time, then can you film me? I want to show my mum.”

“Yeah, of course, I’ll go and get your phone.”

He made to leave and as he did, Scorpius set to go again. Albus waited for him to throw it before he went to get the phone. As if in slow motion, Albus watched Scorpius land and immediately fall sideways. He knew what had happened straight away and his stomach plummeted as as he watched Scorpius roll over and clutch at his ankle, looking up at the ceiling with an expression of anguish.

“Oh my god, Scorpius, are you okay?”

“Shit, shit, shit, no, shit, my ankle,” he said between shallow breaths. “Shit, fuck, it really hurts, ow, shit.”

He was holding his foot with both hands and still looking up at the ceiling, more expletives pouring from him. Albus vaguely registered that this was the first time he’d ever heard Scorpius swear until this thought was banished from his brain when he saw Scorpius’ ankle. 

It had bloomed immediately into a huge, purple swelling. Clearly, he’d rolled his foot over and landed on it sideways and now a lump the size of a satsuma sat just below his ankle bone. 

“Is he alright?” someone said from behind Albus.

“Someone should get Lee,” said someone else. 

“Get an ice-pack, quickly,” Albus said without even looking at whoever it was. He turned his attention on Scorpius, who looked close to tears. “Scorp, we need to ice your ankle.”

Scorpius gritted his teeth and started trying to pull his foot towards him but immediately winced and gave up. 

“Don’t move it,” Albus said hurriedly. “Did that hurt to move?” 

Scorpius nodded, his lips pressed together and his eyes filling with tears. He glanced at his ankle and let out a shuddering gasp, which immediately gave way to a sob. “Oh my god, look at it. Is it broken?” He reached out and tentatively stroked the swelling with one finger, wincing again. 

“Here, let’s ice it.” The ice-pack had arrived and Albus gently applied it to the swelling, his other arm wrapped around Scorpius’ shoulders. 

“Shit, I’ve got comp on Sunday,” Scorpius exclaimed through more tears.

“Don’t worry about that now,” Albus said quickly, a horrible sinking feeling filling him. There was no way Scorpius would be able to compete on Sunday. 

“I’m letting everyone down.” Scorpius cried more, burying his face into Albus’ shoulder. Albus pulled him close and kissed the top of his hair. 

“Shh, it’s okay, you’ll be fine, you’ll be alright,” Albus said quietly into his ear.

“Get it elevated, quick.” A brisk, firm voice pulled Albus from his embrace with Scorpius and he looked up to see Lee, the gym owner, crouched at Scorpius’ side with one of the blocks from the baby gym soft play in his hands. 

Albus removed the ice-pack and kept back while Lee gently placed Scorpius’ horribly swollen ankle up onto the block. 

“Thank you,” Scorpius said with a sniff.

“What happened?” Lee asked, taking the ice pack himself and carefully applying it precisely to the swelling. Albus kept his arm wrapped tightly around Scorpius’ shoulders. 

“I landed badly, rolled over it,” Scorpius said, his breathing becoming shallow again. 

Lee tutted faintly to himself and shifted the ice-pack slightly. “Can you wiggle your toes?” he asked, and Scorpius did. 

“Do you think it’s broken?” Albus asked, giving Scorpius’ shoulder a firm squeeze. 

“Hard to tell,” Lee mused, “but it’s come up in a swelling so fast I’m inclined to think it’s not broken. An x-ray will be able to tell us for sure.”

“An x-ray?” Scorpius squeaked, sounding scared.

“You need A&E, my friend.” He thought for a second while Scorpius looked at Albus in horror. “You’re over eighteen, yes?”

“Yes, I’m nineteen in October,” Scorpius said without animation. 

“Different paperwork,” Lee explained with a shrug. “We need to get you to the hospital. Let’s see if you can put any weight on it, help me, Albus.”

Together, they pulled Scorpius upright and held him between them.

“Right Scorpius, very gently, put a small amount of weight on it. Keep hold of us, stop when it hurts.”

Scorpius started to press his foot into the soft floor and immediately withdrew it, hissing in pain. 

“Okay, no, sit back down and keep it elevated. I’ll get Thea to call an ambulance.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a radio which he immediately started speaking into. 

“Ambulance?” Scorpius echoed in a panic, looking at Albus with wide, scared eyes. “Will you come with me, Albus?” 

“Of course,” Albus assured, still holding onto his shoulders. “It’s going to be okay, Scorp.”

“I’m not going to be able to compete, am I,” he said miserably. 

“You can’t worry about that at the moment,” Albus said hurriedly.

“But of course I’m worrying about it!” Scorpius cried. “Cheer is my life, this competition is our last chance to get a Worlds bid for next year and without me, the pyramid can’t go, Lily’s stunt is out, every formation is affected, half the tumbling section is messed up... “ His eyes welled up with fresh tears. 

“Scorpius, listen to me, it’s going to be okay,” Albus said, trying to sound calm and soothing. He started to rub Scorpius’ back in continuous circles.

  
“I want my mum,” Scorpius said, sniffing back tears. 

“We can call her, get her to meet us at the hospital,” Albus said firmly. 

“She’s going to be so disappointed,” Scorpius said, looking and sounding heartbroken. 

“Right,” Lee said, his radio still in one hand. “Ambulance is on the way. I wonder if we can get you a bit closer to the entrance.” He looked at Albus. “Are you going to go with him?”

“Yes, of course,” Albus said quickly.

“Go and get both of your bags and leave them in reception, we’ll see if we can get you out there too,” Lee said, patting Scorpius on the shoulder. 

Albus turned to Scorpius and instinctively pressed a quick kiss to his forehead before hurrying off to get their bags. He left them on chairs in the reception area, pulling out his hoodie, water bottle and - after some searching - Scorpius’ phone, then he sprinted back into the gym. 

“Brought you these.” Albus held up the hoodie and water and Scorpius smiled gratefully. He let Albus thread his arms through the sleeves and took a sip from the water. “And I brought your phone so you can call your mum.” 

“Thank you. Fair warning, I’ll start crying again when I hear her voice,” Scorpius said with a watery chuckle, unlocking the phone and tapping at the screen. He held it up to his ear and waited.

The sound of the phone ringing stopped and Albus could faintly hear Astoria’s voice answering the call.

“Mum, please don’t be cross.” Scorpius had already started to burst into more tears and Albus reached for his hand. “I rolled my ankle, really badly rolled it. It’s swollen and I’m going in an ambulance to get an x-ray.” 

Lee exchanged a look with Albus. “What _ did _ happen?” 

“I was teaching him how to do a corkscrew, but he has a solid standing full already, Lee! I wasn’t being irresponsible, it was just an accident.” Albus was quick to explain himself.

“He’s Astoria’s son, isn’t he?” Lee asked and when Albus nodded he sighed. “She’s gonna _ kill _ me.” 

There was a pause in which Albus could faintly hear Astoria’s voice through the phone over Scorpius’ sniffs. 

“Albus is coming with me,” he said, looking at their joined hands and smiling up at Albus. Then his expression changed and he held the phone out. “She wants to talk to you.”

Albus took the phone uncertainly and held it up to his ear. “Hello?”

“Albus, hi, my love.” Astoria’s voice echoed into his ear. “I don’t even want to know how this happened, but-”

“He landed badly, it was all my idea. I’m so sorry about your competition,” he blurted out in a rush, suddenly feeling like he could cry himself. 

“I couldn’t care less about comp right now,” she said sharply. “I need to know my boy is safe and I need you to listen to me.” 

“Okay,” Albus said weakly, shocked by the sudden fierceness in her tone.

“Scorpius has a fear of hospitals,” she said quickly. “He’s terrified of them, everything about them, after something that happened when he was younger. He’s probably not showing it, but his anxiety will be through the roof right now at the prospect of going.”

“Oh,” Albus said weakly, feeling faintly sick. 

“I need you to stay with him the whole time and keep talking to him, about anything, just keep his mind occupied. Keep reminding him that he’s safe, that you’re with him and that me and his dad are coming.” Albus heard her say _ Draco, get the car keys _ away from the phone before she was back on the line. “He’s at risk of having a panic attack but if you keep him grounded he should avoid one. Can you do that for me, Albus?”

“Of course!” Albus said straight away. “Absolutely, I can do that.”

“Thank you, sweetheart. We’re on the way, can you put Scorpius back on?” 

Albus passed the phone back over and listened to Scorpius say goodbye to his mum before he put the phone down.

“This is the worst,” Scorpius lamented. 

“Does it hurt?” Albus asked, thinking of the first thing he could and then wondering if pain was the best choice of topic. 

“I can’t really feel anything right now,” Scorpius shrugged. “It hurt when I tried to put weight on it.”

Lee’s radio buzzed and Thea’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Ambulance is here, paramedics coming in with a wheelchair.” 

Albus saw Scorpius swallow hard and grit his teeth. The hand which wasn’t holding onto Albus lay at his side and he was furiously picking at the skin around his thumbnail. 

“Scorpius, you’re safe, I’m going to stay with you all the way and your mum and dad are going to be with you soon,” he said in the calmest voice he could manage. 

Scorpius nodded, his lips pressed together in anguish. His whole posture was tense and scared as he sat there and Albus couldn’t stop himself from gathering Scorpius into a hug. 

“You’re safe, I’m here with you. You’re very safe, I’ll keep you safe,” he whispered into Scorpius’ ear and he felt some of the tension leave Scorpius’ shoulders. 

It was heartbreaking seeing Scorpius loaded into a wheelchair and pushed out of the gym. Albus held his hand the entire way and let go only to collect both their bags, which he slung on his back together before they got into the ambulance. The paramedics did a great job of keeping Scorpius occupied and he even laughed at a few of their jokes, but he continually looked back at Albus for reassurance. Each time, Albus squeezed his hand and whispered _ you’re safe. _

They arrived to the A&E department at almost the same time as Scorpius’ parents, which Albus was exceedingly grateful for. He could feel Scorpius’ anxiety picking up the closer they got to the hospital and he wasn’t sure how much longer he would have been able to keep him from having a panic attack. But seeing his mum seemed to calm him down considerably.

Albus had only ever seen her at the gym before, dressed to coach, but right now she was wearing a black, short-sleeved dress and red lipstick, her dark hair falling in glossy waves over one shoulder. Scorpius’ dad looked equally dressed-up in a fancy-looking shirt, his blond ponytail hanging immaculately down his back. 

“There he is,” Astoria said as soon as she spotted them, rushing over to envelop Scorpius into a hug in his wheelchair. “It’s alright, it’s okay, baby, we’re here. You’re safe.” From the sounds of it, Scorpius had burst into tears again. 

She let him go and Scorpius’ dad stepped forward to hug his son. 

“Why are you both so dressed up?” Scorpius asked from his dad’s arms, blinking in curiosity. 

“Date night,” Draco replied simply and Scorpius immediately looked equal parts apologetic and amused. 

“Ah, sorry,” he squeaked. 

Astoria turned to Albus. “Thank you, Albus. I knew I could count on you.” And before he knew what was happening, she was hugging him too. It was one of those soft hugs only mums seemed capable of giving and Albus stupidly felt his own eyes fill with tears. She noticed and withdrew. “Oh, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” 

“It’s all my fault,” Albus said, wiping tears from his eyes. “It was my idea and now Scorpius can’t compete and he’s hurt and your team’s chances are spoiled and it’s all because of me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, this isn’t anyone’s fault,” she said quickly and with a sharp edge to her voice. “It was a poorly timed accident and it certainly isn’t all because of you.”

“But the team? Your Worlds bid?” 

“We’ll be fine. We’ll rework the routine as best we can and try our best. If we don’t get the bid, there’s always next year. All I care about right now is my son.” She nodded to herself. “I don’t want you feeling guilty, Albus. Please don’t do that.”

“Okay,” Albus mumbled, even though he did still feel incredibly guilty. 

As he spoke, a nurse appeared in front of them with a clipboard in both hands. “Right, folks, unfortunately we’ve had quite a few high priority cases come in tonight so we’re looking at a minimum of two hours wait on that x-ray.”

Draco sighed pointedly and grumbled something under his breath, stopping only when Astoria placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Darling, why don’t you drive Albus home?” she said softly.

Albus felt a swoop of anxiety course through him; he wasn’t sure he wanted to be alone in a car with Scorpius’ slightly intimidating father shortly after being partly responsible for his son ending up in A&E. 

“It’s okay, I can-”

“You need your mum, love. I can tell. We’ll look after Scorpius,” Astoria assured him. 

“She’s right, Albus. You should go home.” Scorpius sighed miserably, as if the magnitude of the situation was fully hitting him. The adrenaline from it all had probably worn off by now.

“My car’s at the gym,” he said vaguely. 

“I don’t think you should drive tonight,” Astoria said with a frown. “You still look very shaken.” 

“Leave your keys with me, we’ll take your car back for you later,” Scorpius’ dad said quickly. 

“Okay, alright, if you’re sure,” Albus said with a nod. He locked eyes with Scorpius who looked completely dejected. “Call me when you hear anything?”

Scorpius lifted his head from his hands like it was a huge effort but he smiled. “Of course, as soon as I’ve had the x-ray.” He gestured for Albus to come over to him and Astoria made a point of busying herself looking through her handbag. 

“I’m so sorry this has happened,” Albus whispered so only Scorpius could hear.

“Albus, thank you for keeping me calm in the ambulance.” Scorpius took both his hands and smiled weakly. “I really appreciate you doing that.”

“Oh, of course, I don’t think I really did much,” he mumbled.

“Yes you did, and I’m extremely grateful. Thank you.” Scorpius hesitated then dropped his voice. “I want to kiss you goodbye but I can’t reach.”

Albus chuckled and pulled Scorpius into a hug, pulling back just to place a kiss on his lips. “Bye, Scor. Call me tonight.” 

“I will, bye, Al.” 

He waved from his wheelchair beside his mum as they left until it was just Albus and Draco walking down the white, echoing hospital corridor. 

“Thanks for driving me home,” Albus said, for lack of anything better to say.

“That’s quite alright,” Draco said as they emerged into the dusky car park. The sun was setting and the street lamps were lit. “My car is this way.” 

“Poor Scorpius,” he said as they crossed the car park. 

“He’ll be okay,” Draco assured. He seemed to be a man of few words compared to his wife. 

“I don’t know enough about cheer. Will the team be okay?” Albus persisted as Draco unlocked the car and gestured for Albus to get into the passenger seat. It was an impeccably clean white Tesla and Albus tried to ignore how scruffy his kit bag looked in the footwell. 

Draco didn’t answer, walking around the front of the car to climb into the driver’s seat. He closed the door and started adjusting his seat and mirrors, glancing over at Albus who realised he’d been staring.

“It was set up for Scorpius to drive, he was practising for his test this afternoon. I didn’t change it earlier, we wanted to get here in time,” he explained.

“Oh, right.” Albus hoped the whole journey wasn’t going to be this awkward. 

Draco checked Albus had his seatbelt on and started the engine, reversing all the way out of the space before he spoke again. 

“To answer your question, yes. The team will be okay.” 

Albus thought he was going to say something else but he didn’t. 

“That’s, er good.”

“They’ll be in there together making a plan as we speak,” he said. “Astoria and Scorpius. The two of them will be planning how to rework the routine without him in it in that hospital waiting room, I guarantee it.”

“Oh, will they?” Albus said stupidly.

“I’d put money on it.”

There was another moment of silence.

“I still don’t really _ get _ the cheer thing,” Albus admitted. “I know it means the world to Scorpius but I don’t… understand it all.”

Draco actually let out a soft laugh. “I’ve been married to Astoria for twenty-two years and I’m still not sure I do. It’s our life but it’s her passion. And Scorpius’ now too.”

“It’s your life?” Albus found his wording confusing.

Draco smirked. “I might not know much about cheerleading but I do know a thing or two about running a business. Phoenix Allstars belongs to both of us, Astoria does all the creative jobs and I do the business and finance side of it all.” He chuckled softly. “But she laughs at me for wanting to wear a suit and tie to the competitions.”

“That’s… really nice that you run it together.” Albus paused, thinking carefully before he spoke. “The team is relatively new, though, isn’t it? A few years, Scorpius said.”

“Phoenix is, yes. Before that Astoria coached for another gym since before we had Scorpius, I was a shareholder in the business side of that too. But Astoria took a break from coaching when Scorpius was twelve. When she was able to, instead of going back, I sold my stake and we moved here and set up on our own. Best decision for our family.” 

Albus wasn’t sure if Draco was just somewhat of a dramatic storyteller or if there was something he wasn’t mentioning. His consideration seemed to show on his face. 

“Has Scorpius told you what happened to his mum?” Draco asked very seriously. 

“Er, I don’t think so?” Albus tried to recall anything Scorpius had mentioned but nothing came to mind. 

“Astoria is a cancer survivor,” Draco said simply.

“Oh! No, Scorpius didn’t mention that.” 

“He was only eleven when she was first diagnosed.” Draco kept his eyes fixed on the road. “It hit him harder than we realised, poor boy. But she’s been in remission now for almost five years.” 

“That’s amazing news,” Albus said weakly, wondering how he could have had no idea. 

“You know that’s why Scorpius has a fear of hospitals,” Draco continued. “There was an awful day, back when he was thirteen. They told us she wasn’t going to make it and I suppose that memory just stuck with him.”

“I don’t blame him, that’s horrible,” Albus agreed, staring down at his shoes. “But she did make it?”

“The doctors were wrong,” Draco said, his eyes fixed on the road. 

* * *

Back at home, after Draco dropped him off, Albus was relieved to see that his mum was home. She could sense something was wrong almost immediately and Albus was grateful Lily wasn’t around to hear as the events of the evening poured out of him and his mum simply held him. He didn’t need his sister turning this into a huge drama just yet, he already felt guilty enough.

“It wasn’t your fault, Albus,” his mum said for the third time in a soothing voice. 

“I just wish I could do something to make it better,” Albus said desperately. 

“Just be there for him while he gets better.”

Albus nodded morosely and checked his watch. “I wonder if he’s had the x-ray yet.”

“I’m sure he’ll call soon.” 

Later, in his bedroom, Albus jumped when his phone rang and felt his heart rate increase when he saw it was Scorpius calling. He answered hastily.

“Scorpius! Hi, how is it? How are things? What did they say?” he blurted out in a rush.

Scorpius laughed; that was a good sign. “Hello, Albus.”

“Well?” he said when Scorpius didn’t say anything more.

“It’s not broken, the x-ray came back clear, it’s just a very bad sprain. I can’t weight bear for two weeks, they’ve given me crutches.” 

“That’s good that it isn’t broken! Sorry about the crutches though.” He hesitated. “And about the competition. How are you feeling about it?”

He could almost hear Scorpius shrug on the other end of the phone. “Obviously I’m gutted. But me and Mum have been making a plan and hopefully it’ll be okay. She’s considering asking one of her old team to step in and help us, it’s really only my stunt with Lily and my tumbling pass that’s missing. The rest she can just move formations around.” 

“Well that sounds positive!”

“It is,” Scorpius said. “Hopefully we can sort something. Mum’s going to call a few people, also we’re on the way to your house to bring your car back.” 

“Are you?” Albus suddenly jumped off his bed and started throwing some dirty laundry from the floor into his laundry basket at the same time as making his bed with one hand.

“Yeah, we’ll be there in about fifteen minutes. Can I speak to Lily quickly? I think I owe it to her to explain before she sees me on crutches.”

“Of course, let me get her.” He abandoned the room tidying and crossed the landing to Lily’s room. 

“Lil.” Albus knocked softly on her open door. Inside she was cross-legged on her bed, her laptop screen lighting up her face. 

“Yes?” she said, hitting a button on the keyboard to pause whatever she was watching. 

“Scorpius needs to speak to you.” He passed the phone over and Lily raised her eyebrows in question before scrambling over to take the phone.

“Hi, Scorp,” she said, listening to whatever he was saying.

Her face was a picture as she listened, going from shocked horror to heartbreak to laughter as she replied to everything he was saying. 

“Okay, well take care of yourself. Love you, Scorp. Bye!” She blew a kiss down the phone and threw it down on her bed, sighing dramatically. “This is terrible!”

“I know, it’s the worst, but Lil-”

“He works harder than _ anyone _, it’s so unfair!” 

“It’s horrible, but I’ve had-”

“This is a _ nightmare! _” Lily continued. 

“Will you please let me tell you my idea?” Albus said firmly before she went off again. 

Lily stared at him and nodded. “Go on.”

“Scorpius told me that he and his mum were working out where the gaps in the routine would be and they found the only parts which can’t be reworked are Scorpius’ stunt with you and his tumbling pass.”

Lily eyed him strangely. “Why are you talking like you know about cheer?” 

“I’ve picked up a bit here and there.” Albus shrugged. “_But _ what I’m trying to say is I can think of someone who can fill both those gaps.”

“You don’t know anyone else who does cheer, what on earth are you on about?” 

“_Think _, Lily. Who is the only other person you’ve done that stunt with recently?”

She crinkled her nose in concentration for a second. Then her expression cleared. She leapt off the bed and threw her arms around him in excitement.

“Albus, you’re a genius!”

“Really? You think it’s a good idea?”

“Yes! It’s a brilliant idea! We need to call Astoria right now.” 

“Actually, she’ll be here any minute,” Albus explained. Lily looked confused and he hastened to explain. “I had to leave my car at the gym to ride in the ambulance with Scorpius, the Malfoys are bringing it back.”

“Well come on, no time to waste!”

Lily grabbed him by the hand and pulled him down the stairs after her, flinging open the front door dramatically. Of course she had just the timing to do so as two sets of headlights pulled into their driveway, one of which was Albus’ own car.

The engine stopped, the headlights dimmed and Draco stepped out of the driver’s seat. He stopped when he saw Albus and Lily waiting expectantly in the doorway.

“Home in one piece.” Draco handed Albus the keys. “Interesting mix of CDs you have in there, Albus.”

Albus cringed, trying to even remember which albums he had loaded into the car’s sound system. “Thanks so much for bringing it back.” 

“What’s all this?” Their mum appeared in the door with the cutlery holder from the dishwasher in one hand. “Draco, hello, nice to see you again. Thanks for bringing Al’s car back.”

“It’s no bother at all.” As he spoke, the Tesla car door opened dramatically upwards and Astoria stepped out, moving around to help Scorpius out of his seat. 

Their mum stepped back from the doorway. “Do you want to come in?”

“Scorpius wanted to say hello!” Astoria called in explanation, handing him his crutches and helping him out of the car, his bandaged ankle sticking out in front of him. 

“Yes! They do want to come in,” Lily said quickly. 

Draco looked at her in utter perplexion. “Actually, we should be getting home.”

Lily shook her head and went running over to Astoria and Scorpius. “Coach Astoria! Albus has had the most brilliant idea.” 

Albus felt accusatory eyes on him from both his mother and Draco. “In my defence, I didn’t think she’d be quite so dramatic about it,” he said sheepishly. 

So that was how they ended up sat in the living room, Albus sharing the small sofa with Scorpius, his crutches propped up at one end, and both their parents and Lily talking through Albus’ idea with varying levels of interest (Albus’ dad looked unsure as to how he had ended up there). 

“So let me get this straight, Albus, you want to be a cheerleader now?” his dad said, looking reasonably confused.

“Not exactly,” Albus mumbled.

“It’s a brilliant idea!” Scorpius said brightly. “Mum, it’s amazing! He can already do the stunt with Lily _ and _ he can tumble.” 

Astoria looked skeptical. “Have you ever cheered before, Albus?” 

“Well, no, but I’ve done gym since I was four. And Scor’s right, I can do the stunt with Lily. Isn’t that all you need?”

Astoria appraised him for a second, not in a judgemental way but more as if she were really mulling the idea over. “How well can you tumble?” 

Albus opened his mouth to answer but was drowned by both Scorpius and Lily scoffing dramatically. 

“Mum, Albus can tumble better than I can,” Scorpius said, folding his arms.

“That’s not true.” Albus blushed. 

“Please, you could do my pass with your eyes closed.” Scorpius nudged him in the side. 

“My technique’s probably a bit rusty these days,” Albus said bashfully.

“We can work on that,” Astoria put in quickly. “Are you really serious about this, Albus?”

“As long as I don’t have to dance,” he said, laughing to cover up how very serious he was being. 

“No, you wouldn’t have to, I can find you something else to do.” Astoria turned to his parents. “How do you feel about this?” 

“I think it’s a lovely idea, I’ve always said you should try cheer, Albus,” his mum said, ruffling his hair. “And it’s not like we aren’t going to Birmingham anyway.” 

“Yes!” Lily punched the air. 

“I’m glad you’re so pleased to have got rid of me,” Scorpius said sarcastically. 

“Can you make it to team training tomorrow night?” Astoria cut in. 

“Er, yeah, I’m free.”

“And I can show him the routine before then,” Lily added. “We can practise the stunt in the garden.”

“Absolutely not, we don’t need another injury.” Astoria winced. “But I could call an emergency training on Thursday too, I’ll see if Lee can squeeze us in on the full sized floor.” 

She’d pulled out a small diary and was rifling through the pages, everyone was nodding and muttering to each other in agreement. Albus looked over to Scorpius and reached for his hand; he looked up in surprise.

“How do you really and honestly feel about this?” he whispered. 

Scorpius squeezed his hand. “If I have to see anyone compete in my place, I’m glad it’s you.”

They shared a smile and Albus very much wanted to kiss Scorpius in that moment. It was then that he realised Scorpius’ dad was watching the two of them, a vaguely fond expression on his face. He saw Albus had noticed and nodded, concealing a grin behind the glass of water in his hand. 

“Well this has certainly been an eventful evening,” Astoria said, putting her diary away.

* * *

Albus looked into the full length mirror and pulled the long sleeves of his top down again, adjusting it over his torso and smoothing his hands over the stretchy, black and silver material. He had the words _ Phoenix Allstars _emblazoned across his chest, painfully white trainers on his feet and his hair was gelled into place in a way he’d never worn it before. In a way, he looked ridiculous; in another way, he thought he looked alright. 

He watched in the mirror as Scorpius hobbled up behind him on his crutches - he was getting quite good with them now - and rested his head on Albus’ shoulder casually, hooking one arm around Albus’ waist. Albus looked at Scorpius’ face in the reflection as he sighed happily and kissed Albus on the cheek.

“You look amazing in my uniform,” Scorpius said a low voice. “Didn’t I say you would.”

Albus held onto Scorpius’ forearm which lay across his stomach and grinned. “Not as good as you look in it.” 

Scorpius unwound himself and crutched over to a nearby chair (they were strategically placed all over the rented house so Scorpius always had somewhere to sit). “You’ve never seen me in my uniform before.” 

“Not in person,” Albus shrugged. “But it’s all over your instagram.” 

“You’ve been lurking on my instagram,” Scorpius accused slyly, looking pleased.

“Says you, dropping likes on pictures from last year.” Albus folded his arms and appraised his boyfriend. “And that was before we’d even spoken properly.”

Scorpius looked totally unashamed, holding his hands up innocently. “You looked good in that photo.”

“Are you ready? Can I come in?” Astoria called from outside the door.

“Yes, all ready!” he replied, taking one last look in the mirror. 

She pushed open the door and gave him a once over. “Oh, Albus, don’t you look handsome!” she said, brushing an invisible speck of dirt from his shoulder. “Nice job with the hair, did Scorpius do that?” 

Scorpius chuckled. “Is it that obvious?”

Feeling he was missing something, Albus watched the two Malfoys exchange wry smiles before Astoria took pity on him and started to explain. “That was Scorp’s signature hairstyle last season when we were in the level four division. What was it they called it?”

“_The Scorpius Swoop _,” Scorpius said proudly. 

“You gave me your last season look?” Albus pretended to be annoyed. 

“It’s only last season because my hair isn’t long enough to do that anymore.” Scorpius threw his mother an accusatory look. “Because _ someone _cut it all off.” 

“You asked for it like that, my love.” Astoria ruffled Scorpius’ hair fondly. “Be ready to leave in five. Albus, you can’t wear those shoes outside so put something else on and bring them with you.” 

She pulled the door closed behind her and Albus stared down at his feet. “Why can’t I wear these shoes?”

“You never wear cheer shoes outside,” Scorpius explained solemnly. “That’s the first thing they teach you in Cheerleader School.” He burst out laughing. “You want to keep them clean and make sure the soles don’t get worn down.” 

“Alright, all these rules in cheer.” He grumbled and unlaced the shoes, slipping his feet into his regular trainers instead. 

“And now you have to put them in the special little case,” Scorpius urged, pointing to the red, shoe-shaped carry case on the bed behind Albus. 

“Fine,” Albus sighed, stuffing the shoes into the case and slinging the strap over his shoulder. He put his black backpack on too and took a quick scan around to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. 

“Albus, you look like such a _ cheerleader,” _Scorpius said, watching him happily from his chair. 

“Well, just for today, I _ am _ a cheerleader.” Albus adjusted his backpack straps and smiled. “Ready?”

“No,” Scorpius said defiantly. “I need one more thing before I’m ready to go.”

“What is it? I’ll get it for you,” Albus said, gearing up to retrieve whatever it was.

“A kiss. A big one, please.” Scorpius smirked. 

“Fine, but only because you’re on crutches,” Albus said with a fake eye roll, making his way over to Scorpius.

Scorpius pretended to eye him strangely. “Why? Do you have a crutch kink?” 

“Do you want this kiss or not?” 

“I’m just saying, are you no longer going to be attracted to me when I’m off the crutches? Because you did just say-”

Albus shut him up by pressing their lips firmly together. 

At the arena, they’d pre-booked a wheelchair for Scorpius so he could stay off his feet for most of the day, but his crutches hung off the back in case he wanted more of a walk about. A little group of girls from Scorpius’ team were arguing over who was going to get to push him and Scorpius was trying to appease them all.

“Actually, girls, my boyfriend over there is going to push me. But do you know what would be really helpful?” he said to his captive audience of nodding girls. “If you could walk ahead of us to clear a bit of a pathway. That would be great.”

The girls all jumped at the chance to help Scorpius, taking his instructions very seriously and cutting a wide path all the way to their floor level seats. Albus parked Scorpius at the end of a row of seats and sat down next to him. 

“Well this is… loud.” 

Albus looked around at the arena, gradually filling up with cheerleaders. Despite the early hour, there was a loud announcement that _Supreme Starlets_ _Sapphire_ would be taking to the floor in the _senior level two small division_ which presumably meant something to people who weren’t Albus. There was lots of whooping and cheering as a group of identically dressed girls scattered across the large mat and yet more loud music blasted over the speakers. 

“They’re really good,” Scorpius said, watching the team who were performing. “That programme is going for a worlds bid today too.” 

Albus felt a little knot of nerves emerge when he remembered that he was going to have a small hand in Scorpius’ team’s success today. 

From nowhere, Astoria appeared and thrust a cereal bar into Albus’ hand, dropping one into Scorpius’ lap too. “Breakfast,” she said briefly, kissing Scorpius on the top of the head and checking her watch. “Alright, do I have all my Silver girls? It’s time for pre-warm-up.”

Albus unwrapped the cereal bar in amusement. “Breakfast,” he echoed, holding the bar up to clink against Scorpius’.

“Mum’s in full _ Astoria _ mode today,” he said pulling a face. “Just look past how intense she gets.”

Albus chewed at the cereal bar and watched Astoria doing a headcount of her excited-looking team, all clamouring to ask her things. She beckoned for them to follow and lead them away to wherever it was they were going. 

“I think your mum’s pretty great,” he said, swallowing the cereal bar. 

Scorpius smiled. “She’s my hero.” 

Albus hesitated for a second. “Your dad told me, you know, that she was ill. I had no idea!” 

Scorpius shrugged. “Why would you have done? I didn’t say anything, did I?” 

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Albus muttered, casting around for a subject change.

“It’s okay, she’s alright now. I just don’t like talking about it much; thinking I was going to lose my mum was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through.” He didn’t meet Albus’ eye, twisting his hands together in his lap. 

“You don’t have to talk about it at all,” Albus said firmly. 

“They told me she wasn’t going to see me turn fourteen.” He still wasn’t making eye contact. “But then there was this pioneering new treatment, it cost a fortune and there was only a fifty percent chance it would work.” He finally looked up at Albus, his eyes wide. “We were lucky, because it did work and she made a full recovery. Very _ my mum _ thing to do really.” 

“Your mum is insanely strong,” Albus whispered. “Look at her.” 

“Every time I perform it’s for her.” Scorpius pulled a face. “Sorry, that was so cheesy. But it’s true.” 

“Well,” Albus said, leaning forward to press a kiss to his forehead, “today, I’ll perform for both of you.” 

There were still a few hours before Black took to the mat and Albus was getting increasingly nervous. Scorpius kept up a constant stream of encouragement and advice which was sweet of him but didn’t do much to quell Albus’ nerves. His main worry was letting the others in the team down; he’d already lost them Scorpius, he didn’t want to lose them the Worlds bid too. 

Eventually, it was time for them to go to warm up. Albus felt faintly sick and he wasn’t even in most of the routine so he had no idea how Lily and the others must be feeling. 

“Good luck, I’ll be right at the front of the mat,” Scorpius said excitedly. “Look for me, okay?” 

“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.” Albus swallowed hard.

“You’re going to be brilliant,” Scorpius assured him, pulling Albus towards him and pressing a kiss against his lips. “See you on the other side.” 

“I’ll look after him,” Lily popped up from behind him and looped her arm through his. “Come on, Al, time to make your cheer debut.” 

Everything from that moment happened strangely quickly. One minute they were walking to warm up and the next thing Albus really knew, the announcer was saying the team’s name and he was propelled forwards to a cacophony of cheers. There were bright lights shining onto the mat, making it difficult to see the crowd, but Albus sought Scorpius out straight away. He was front and centre, right where he said he’d be, his blond hair shining in the lights. He gave Albus a double thumbs up and blew him a kiss before they got into position. 

The music started and Albus felt adrenaline course through his body. He threw his first standing full and moved into position to wait for his stunt with Lily. The energy amongst the team was electric and Albus felt a thrill in his chest as he watched the first set of stunts hit perfectly from the back.

The moment came for his stunt with Lily and he steeled himself into position, remembering all the pointers Astoria had given him that week. He tossed her high into the air and caught her feet above his head, and for a second Albus felt like he was having an out of body experience as he concentrated all his efforts on keeping Lily balanced up there. It felt a bit like things were moving in slow motion as he popped her feet up and caught her. She gave him a huge grin and dashed off to the next part of the routine. 

Albus didn’t have to do anything now until his tumbling pass and he stood at the back waiting, watching the rest of the team absolutely kill it. They were picking up on each other’s energy and their confidence was through the roof as things went from good to better. He glanced over at Scorpius who was shouting his head off and erupting into more and more cheers as each section of the pyramid hit. 

Then it was Albus’ time to perform his tumbling pass, at exactly the same point in the routine as he’d watched Scorpius do it all that time ago. He stood in the corner, bracing himself, waiting for his cue, and then it came. He threw the pass, one piece at a time, feeling on top of the world as the cheering from the crowd picked up. He completed his double full and landed cleanly, looking to the judges like Astoria had told him. Then he caught Scorpius’ eye and threw him a wink. 

The end of the routine was a dance that Albus wasn’t in and instead he took the opportunity to watch Scorpius again, who was adorably joining in from his wheelchair. They hit the final pose and a cheer erupted. Lily tackled him into a hug so fierce she almost pulled him to the ground, screaming _ we did it _ repeatedly into his ear. 

And then before he knew it, Scorpius was pulling him into a hug and telling him how proud he was. Albus felt euphoric, this was nothing like anything he’d felt before. 

“That was a perfect run!” Scorpius exclaimed. “Nothing fell, nothing touched down, zero deductions!”

“That sounds like a good thing!” Albus said, feeling a bit dazed. 

“Come on, let’s watch replay.”

“What?” Albus asked weakly.

“You get to watch the routine back, push me there?” Scorpius requested sweetly.

Albus did, wheeling him carefully in the same direction as everybody else to where a big screen was set up. As they were walking, Astoria caught up with him. 

“You were incredible, Albus. Thank you.” She pulled him into a side hug and ruffled his hair. 

“Sorry, I’m horribly sweaty,” Albus protested. 

“How did that feel?” she asked and Scorpius also looked intrigued to hear his answer. 

“That might be the most exciting thing I’ve done,” Albus replied breathlessly. 

“You might want to keep hold of that uniform then.” Astoria winked and moved to catch up with the rest of the team. 

Albus laughed after her. 

“She’s right,” Scorpius shrugged. “Tell me you aren’t at least a little bit curious to do that again.”

“It wasn’t terrible,” Albus smirked. 

“It’s a bug, it gets you.” Scorpius tapped at the side of his wheelchair. “Now come on, we’re going to miss replay and I want to see you wink at me again.”

* * *

“And in fourth place… Royal Rockets!” 

“We did better than last time!” Lily whispered while they all clapped for the fourth place team.

Albus and the rest of Black (including Scorpius with his crutches) were sat in a circle, listening to the placings of their division being announced. He still didn’t completely and fully get what was going on, but he knew they were hoping for second or first place to get a Worlds bid. And the way it stood, they’d come in the top three. The tension in the air was palpable. 

“Third place, in the senior, co-ed, small, level five division, goes to…” The announcer left an annoyingly long pause and Lily squeezed Albus’ hand so hard he thought she might bruise him.

“It’s us, I can feel it,” someone in the team whispered.

“Phoenix Allstars Black!” 

There was another huge cheer and Lily pulled Albus up and hugged him tightly. A trophy appeared as if from nowhere and everyone organised themselves into a group around Scorpius (who was still sat on the floor) for a photo as if this had been pre-arranged. Albus posed too in a bewildered sort of way and copied Lily when she sat back down hear who had placed second and first.

“Amazing,” Scorpius said, squeezing Albus’ hand. 

“I’m so proud of every single one of you today,” Astoria told the circle as the first place team celebrated their win. “Bid or no bid, what you put out there today was phenomenal and the only way is up for our team. Third place and we were up against some very established teams, and with all the last minute changes you had, I’m very happy with how we’ve done.”

“And now, announcing the teams who will be going home today with a bid to the Cheerleading World Championships in Florida.” The announcer’s words created a tense hush amongst the teams. 

“In this category, we were astounded by the level of skill. More than one team has exceeded the score threshold necessary to be awarded a bid. First, earning a partial paid bid to Worlds, are Supreme Starlets Solar!”

“That one was a given,” Lily commented, as everyone clapped for the first place team. “And the other one will be Eastern Extreme.” 

Eastern Extreme were the team which had come second and Lily was correct that they were awarded a bid next. 

“Next up, with a score of one hundred and nineteen, and also winning a bid to Worlds-”

“That all girl team from Supreme, surely?” Scorpius whispered uncertainly as the announcer left a pause. 

But Albus had noticed Astoria’s expression: she looked stunned, speechless for the first time since Albus had ever met her.

“Phoenix Allstars Black!” 

Albus wasn’t sure he’d ever properly hear out of his left ear again, given the piercing scream Lily performed directly into it, matched only by the cacophony of noise coming from all around him. And Albus realised he was cheering too before he knew it, several people were crying, everything was the most overwhelming it had been all day, and that was saying something. 

And then a warm hand slipped into his and Scorpius was turning tear-filled eyes on him. 

“Want to go and find somewhere a bit more quiet?”

Albus nodded wordlessly, realising that, in that moment, he wanted nothing more.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! This was, in a way, very out of my comfort zone and I almost didn't think I'd get it done in time!  
Huge thanks and so much love to Trolley B for betaing and listening to endless voice notes in which I agonised over this plot, you're a legend <3  
I'd love to know what you thought on my take here! Please let me know in a comment :)  
MASSIVE thank you to Violet and Fidgety for organising this event! it pushed me to create something I'm really proud of and I can't wait to read everyone else's entries :)  
tumblr: littlerose13writes
> 
> love u xxx


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